


Stuck With You

by strangerbdead



Category: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019)
Genre: Fanfiction, Gen, Tommy - Freeform, Winter, archive, austinabrams, scarystories, scarystoriestotell, strangerbdead, stuckwithyou, tommymilner
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-06
Updated: 2019-12-13
Packaged: 2020-10-10 23:09:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 41,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20536157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strangerbdead/pseuds/strangerbdead
Summary: Chuck and his best friend Auggie decide to take part in a prank against school bully Thomas "Tommy" Milner, and third wheel Stella Nicholls is inspired to join in. When the prank takes a dramatic turn for the worst, Stella finds herself trapped with Milner in a situation that could will test how they really feel about each other. A Stella/Tommy Lemon





	1. Getting Ready

The year is 1967. It was Christmas Eve, and the sun was starting to set while ‘Jingle Bells’ by Dinah Shore was playing on a record player in Stella’s room. A small band of Christmas lights were wrapped around her walls, and a hobbit-sized Christmas tree stood in the corner. It was hung with various ornaments that glistened in the light.  
“I don’t want to go out tonight.” Stella said into her small radio, laying on her bed and staring up at the ceiling of her bedroom. 

“Are you seriously going to stay inside tonight, Stell?” a voice responded through the radio. “It’s going to snow pretty hard tonight. Tonight! That means double the ammunition!” the voice chirped once again. “Please, please! He’s deserved this for so long! Yesterday, he made me- “

“We all know what he did.” A third voice responded through the radio. “Please don’t say it.”

“…he made me drink his fart! He took my milk and farted in it, and his friends held me down while he shoved it in my mouth! I threw up for hours in the cafeteria bathroom, and the janitor had to call the nurse to come give me antacid! You can’t tell me that’s not inhumane.” The second voice protested! Stella giggled a little bit and perked herself up from the bed.

“That’s disgusting, Chuck.” She said, smirking and sitting up.  
“I. KNOW!” Chuck replied. “That’s why we’re going to bury his raggedy ass farmhouse under three feet of snow tonight – all of us! Remember when he made you do his Algebra homework, Auggie?  
Don’t you want payback for that?”

“It wasn’t that bad actually. I did it in, like, ten minutes.” The third voice, Auggie, said.  
“Either way, he made you do it. That’s like, a violation of our first amendment rights, and I’m not going to let him diss an American like that.” Chuck continued.

“You’re delusional, Chuckie.” Stella said, smiling. “I don’t want to go. If you want to end up with broken bones, that’s on you.” 

“…Just when I thought I had the most loyal friends in the world.” Chuck replied, disappointed.  
“I just…I just don’t feel like going out tonight.” Stella replied, laying back down in her bed, and resuming her staring contest with the ceiling. “I love you guys, but I’ll talk to you tomorrow, kay?”  
“Fine.” Chuck said. “Butt-face, wanna meet me at Georgeton Lane in twenty? I’m gonna be there with a sack full of snow, and you can bring your little slingshot.”  
“I told you, it’s a defensive weapon!” Auggie exclaimed! “And I have to put my clothes away, but after that, I’ll call you back.”  
“Cool!” Chuck excitedly said. “And if something happens and we have to split up, we’ll meet back at the shack.”  
“Okay. Over and out.” Auggie said.  
“Last chance, Stell! I could really use your smarts to hit the-.”  
“I said I don’t want to go OUT tonight.” Stella practically yelled into her small radio. 

There was a long silence after her outburst, and Stella was sure that Chuck was gone, but the radio suddenly crackled to life for one last time. “Over and out.” Chuck said somberly.

“…over and out.” Stella mumbled. She felt a twinge of guilt in her gut, but she also knew that Chuck would forgive her in a heartbeat. She just wanted to be by herself for a while. She heard snoring coming from outside of her bedroom – it was her dad in his chair downstairs, asleep in front of the TV. This made Stella feel uneasy.

Stella had a comfortable schedule. She would write various horror stories in her room during the weekend, while her father either worked long hours, or lounged by the television. During the weekdays, she spent her time in school with her two best friends, August “Auggie” Hildebrandt and Charles “Chuck” Steinburg. Her two best friends were the occasional target for the infamous school bully, Thomas “Tommy” Milner, who always had lackies with him during his schemes. 

Tommy is a white, slim build Junior who goes to school with her, and he lives somewhere on the outskirts of town. He is one of the most popular kids at Mill Valley High; although he wasn’t a physically intimidating person, he was considerably fast on his feet, and nailed his audition for the Mill Valley Football Team on the first go. He was the team quarterback, and due to his remarkable speed, it was rare for him to be tackled or otherwise touched during the season games. This meant that whenever the team for Mill Valley competed with other schools, they were guaranteed the win when Tommy played for them. This is the reason why everybody loves him.  
Despite his talents, Tommy has an infamous reputation for being a real piece of shit. His hobby during school hours was to shove kids and their books onto the floors, activating the smoke detectors every other week, and pretending that the Vietnamese were invading the school, just to get a reaction out of the younger kids. 

Although Tommy loved to give Auggie atomic wedgies, and lock Chuck inside of his locker, he never really paid any attention to Stella. She preferred it to stay that way, mainly due to her indifference with the school community. Everybody, excluding her two best friends, thought she was a freak and avoided communicating with her at all. At first, Stella’s time at school was getting very miserable, but eventually, disgust and pity replaced her sorrow. 

Stella turned her head and looked out of her bedroom window. The sky was glistening with twilight lights, and small flurries of snow were falling against the glass. She gasped, and ran over to the window, eager to see the weather! The ground outside was barely covered in snow, but she knew that it would become a blanket of white pretty soon. She could see a couple of children out in the street, throwing snowballs at each other, and even a couple of parents who were partaking in the fun!  
There were a few snowmen standing at the front of the yards of the neighborhood. Some of them were big, plump, and well put together, while a few were slumped over, rough edged, and missing an arm or an eye. Stella didn’t mind – they all looked beautiful. The multi-colored Christmas lights only amplified the gorgeous scenery. Stella could stare at the decorations all night if she wanted to.

A loud roar from down the street made Stella jump a few inches. She glanced to get a better look, and saw a Pontiac Catalina roaring down the road. She couldn’t see who was driving the car, but she could see the colors of the driver’s jacket; mustard and forest green.

“Watch out, kiddies!” Somebody in the car screamed! WACK! “Oops!”

Stella could see that one of the snowmen had now fallen apart. It was now just a pile of snow with a hat on top of it. 

“Look out, coming through!” Someone in the car shouted! WACK! “Nice one!”

Another snowman had collapsed – and this time, the kids who had built it began to sob loudly. 

“I’m calling the police!” a man, presumably their father, declared as he waved a fist at the fleeing car. Stella couldn’t hear what the person in the car said, but she could hear more whacking noises as the car drove off, and she could see more destroyed snowmen in the yards of her far away neighbors. 

She knew what was happening – the jerks in the Pontiac were destroying the snowmen as they cruised around.

Across the street, the parents were ushering their sobbing kids to come inside, discontent at what the vandals had done to their works of art. They closed the door behind them, and soon after this, the decorative Christmas lights were turned off, plunging the entire yard into darkness. All the sensation of joy and Christmas bliss had gone with them. Stella stared vengefully at the broken-down snowman, wishing that somehow, a magical force could resurrect it, and give the kids something to smile about again. As she continued staring, her hope began to turn into a drive; She couldn’t let this slide; she wanted to do something. She HAD to do something. 

She had to get even with those punks.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“This is ‘Wood Chuck’, reporting from Georgeton Lane! I repeat, this is ‘Wood Chuck’, reporting from Georgeton Lane! Where are you, ‘Bird Branch’?” Chuck hissed into his small walkie talkie. He shook an ambush of snow flurries off his head and brushed the leftover snow off his knees.  
He was standing alone on the corner of Georgeton Lane and an unnamed road that led down to a farmhouse, hoisting a medium sized sack full of snow, and he wore a large fluffy jacket. 

Chuck was busy attempting to contact his partner in crime, Auggie. He has gotten no response yet. 

“Again, this is ‘WOOD CHUCK’, reporting from Georgeton Lane! ‘WOOD Chuck’, damn it!” Chuck exclaimed, throwing his arms downward and lightly kicking a small pile of snow into the street in frustration. He’s been waiting here for over half an hour – where was his friend? “I’m going to wait for ten more minutes and if you’re not here, I’m taking all of the glory for this!” Chuck said. 

About five minutes more passed before Chuck noticed something ominous in the distance. There were two silhouettes at the end of the lane, and it was hard to make them out. The snowfall had increased since Chuck had invited his friends out almost an hour ago, and he could barely see the other side of the street at this point.

Chuck shivered as he brought his walkie talkie up to his lips. “’B…Bird Branch’, please tell me that’s you over there.” He hissed worriedly. He hoped it wasn’t Tommy Milner, or anybody who knew him at any capacity. If they caught him alone in the snow…it would be all over for him. He feared he would never be able to recover from what they would do to him. The silhouettes were getting closer to him, and anxiety immediately hit him like a brick. He clumsily opened his sack full of snow, collected a pre-made snowball, and brought his arm back, ready to fire. As soon as the shadows were within hitting range, Chuck let out a roar of defiance and threw the snowball directly at the taller silhouette! “Eat piss, Milner!” He screamed!

“Hey!” a voice-cracked boy squealed when he was hit in the face with the snowball. “What’s your problem, fuzz head!?”  
“It’s you!?” Chuck replied, getting a better look at the two shadows! It was Auggie and Stella, and a very wet snowball was dripping down Auggie’s cheeks.  
“Yeah, points for observation Chuck!” Auggie said, wiping the wet snow off his face. He was dressed in a navy blue jacket and wore a darker beanie on his head.  
“Why didn’t you say anything!?” Chuck cried out, slightly pushing Auggie away! “Do you know what I could’ve done to you?”  
“I’m sure you would’ve given us a good beating, ‘Wood Chuck’.” Auggie snickered.  
“Yeah, that’s right.” Chuck said. He turned his attention to Stella and was surprised to even see her out here at all. “And I thought you were going to stay. At home, yaknow.”  
Stella shivered in the cold and glanced down at the snow underneath her feet as she spoke. “Yeah…I’m sorry, I just…I guess I just want to give Tommy what he deserves…so…” she said, partially mumbling. She wore a pink leather coat over a thick pink sweater.

Chuck stared at her for a moment, as if contemplating whether she was telling the truth. His stare turned into a grin, and he wrapped his arms around her. “Don’t sweat it Stella Bella!” He said, patting her hard on the back! “After this, we’ll go back to my place and down some hot cocoa, kay?”

“Sounds good.” Stella chuckled. 

“Ugh, this snow stinks!” Auggie groaned as he wiped the rest of the snowball off his face. “It smells like…no…no, no, no!” Auggie protested, pointing a finger at Chuck. “Tell me you did not…”  
Chuck shrugged his shoulders and laughed nervously. “I…may have peed on the snow before I balled it.” He admitted. 

“DUDE!” Auggie squealed, shoving Chuck backwards! “It’s all over my face!” He said, bending over and putting his hands on his knees. He gagged above the snow, ready to vomit.  
“I thought you were Milner, man!” Chuck replied. “Sorry!”

“I don’t look anything like Milner!” Auggie said sarcastically, gagging again.  
“You should have said something when I called you! What took you guys so long, anyway?” Chuck asked.  
“Stella came over for a bit, and we wanted to surprise you.” Auggie explained, finally getting the nerve to stand up straight again. “And do you realize the danger of being out in the snow for longer than ten minutes? You look like you’re going to freeze to death.”

“I haven’t had a stiffy in almost an hour, so I guess it’s pretty serious!” Chuck grinned, tying up his sack of snow and hauling it over his shoulders! “Are we doing this, or what?” He cheerfully asked.  
“I…am not…touching your pee flavored snowcicles.” Auggie replied.  
“But – but you have gloves on! C’mon! It didn’t even pee that hard. It was like…you know when you turn off a hose, and that last bit of water just drips out of the end of it?” Chuck asked.  
Auggie and Stella stared at him, utterly disgusted.  
“Well yeah, it was – it was like that.” Chuck stuttered. “My point is, it’s not that bad! Please.” Chuck said with his infamous pouty eyes. 

“Only if you promise that this is never happening again.” Stella commented. 

“No way! Next year, I’m going to get some of my turds, and- “  
“Enough! Before I disown you for the rest of my life, let’s just do this and get out of the cold.” Auggie said, motioning for Chuck to lead the way. 

“Alright!” Chuck said, starting toward Milner’s farmhouse. “The Flock is back in action!”  
Stella rolled her eyes but couldn’t contain her smile. “Is that what we’re called, now?”  
“Yeah! I’m ‘The Wood Chuck’, Aug is the ‘Bird Branch’, and you’re ‘The Cheep’!” Chuck replied.  
“’The Cheep? Why?” Stella asked.  
“Because you cheep.” Chuck answered. “And baby birds’ cheep…you’re the baby bird here.”  
“Baby bird?” Stella asked, puzzled.  
“Yeah. You’re the youngest, cutest, and the shortest.” Chuck said with a smile.  
“Yeah, okay.” Stella smiled.  
“Are you blushing, Aug?” Chuck teased.  
“No!” Auggie said defensively. “It’s the cold.”  
“It’s alright, man. You’ll find love someday.”  
“Will you ever learn to shut up?”  
“My sister asks me the same thing.” Chuck replied.  
“Shocker.” Auggie dryly said.

Stella loved her friends, regardless of their child-like personalities and eccentric behavior. Perhaps that’s what made them so close. “By the way, I’M making the hot cocoa when we get back.” She said. “I don’t want it to taste like urine.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever! Come on!” Chuck ordered. Together, the three teenagers made their way down the old unmarked road, heading toward Milner’s farmhouse.


	2. Prank Gone Wrong

Chuck, Stella, and Auggie crept up silently onto the Milner’s house. It was a farmhouse on a small hill, which overlooked a massive cornfield just below the house.   
Stella wasn’t familiar with this part of town at all. Seeing the endless cornstalks gave her the shivers.

“Jackpot!” Chuck breathed. “Nobody’s home, that means we can take our time with this.” He said to the others.

“Cool.” Stella said. 

Auggie scoffed. “But how long until he gets back?” 

“I don’t know. Who cares?” Chuck answered.

“Uh, I don’t want to get strung up in the cornfield like a scarecrow by a bunch of jocks, thank you very much!” Auggie argued.

“Who ordered the chicken?” Chuck mocked.

“You have got to stop saying that.” Auggie replied.

“I’ll stop saying it when you stop being it.” Chuck mocked again.

“You know what, fine!” Auggie huffed, snatching Chuck’s snow sack out of his hand and opening it up for himself. “This is the only time I’m touching your pee, got it?” Auggie said.

Stella smirked and wrapped her arms around herself to try and stop shivering. She was getting colder by the second, and she could swear that ice cycles were starting to form on her eyelashes. 

“Okay, you guys ready?” Chuck breathed. “We should go for the windows upstairs first!””

“Wouldn’t it make more sense to hit the downstairs windows since we’re trying to build the snow upwards?” Auggie asked.

“Who’s in charge here?” Chuck asked.

“Uh, nobody leads this group. It’s pretty much a democracy.”

“Well guess what, ‘Bird Branch’, welcome to the real world! It’s my group now.” Chuck grinned. 

“I don’t think so.” Auggie snorted. 

“Okay. If I can’t be the leader, I’m telling Ruthie that you think about her every time you wank.” Chuck said.

“What is the matter with you!?” Auggie almost yelled! “That’s sick!”

“No, DENIAL is sick!” Chuck replied. “You know it’s true, you do it every night!”

“Do not!”  
“Do too!”  
“Do NOT!”  
“Do TOO!”

“Oh, my, GOD.” Stella interrupted! “Hurry up and give me a pee ball!”

Auggie and Chuck muttered playful insults while they gathered up the snowballs, giving a pile of ammunition to Stella for good measure. Each teenager has about twenty snowballs to throw. “Okay guys…moment of truth. Tonight…Milner pays.” Chuck says to the group.

“And tomorrow, we die.” Auggie says.  
“Probably.” Stella smirks.  
“BOMBS AWAY!” Chuck cries out!

One by one, the three teenagers hurled snowballs at the Milner’s farmhouse. Two of them immediately struck an upstairs window, splattering the glass with wet snow and leaving frost on the glass. A couple more snowballs hit the sides of the house, causing the snow to seep into the cracks and crevices of the walls. 

“Don’t hold back!” Chuck said! 

Stella squealed with delight and threw her snowballs at the bottom of the house! 

Chuck was throwing his snowballs at the front door of the farmhouse. One of them struck the outer edges of the screen-door and tore a hole in the seams! Chuck paused and realized what he had just done, and then he continued to throw his snowballs at the steps that led up to the porch! “Throw them at the porch!” He commanded!

“Why?” Stella asked, throwing her snowballs at the porch and laughing!

“When they freeze, they won’t be able to get into their own house.” Chuck smirked. 

All three teenagers coated the Milner’s front porch in their snowballs, and although they were making progress, Auggie was the first to notice the major problem. 

“Guys…the snow is getting bigger.” He said. 

“Of course, it is, that’s the point!” Chuck said. 

“No, I mean…the snow…it’s just getting bigger.” Auggie said. 

Stella stopped throwing her snowballs and noticed that Auggie was right. It was snowing harder than it had been earlier, and more snow was piling on top of the Milner’s house than they were throwing.

“It’s the weather.” Auggie said. It was freezing, it was heavy, and it was getting dangerous. A small breeze began sweeping the air, giving Stella an uncomfortable chill. 

“Maybe we should go back home.” Stella suggested.

“So it’s snowing more than we wanted it to, big deal! Keep throwing guys!” Chuck commanded! He threw a snowball toward the house, but the wind immediately threw the pee-ball back toward him. The ball smacked him in the face, splattering him with wet snow and causing him to topple over backwards! “Ugh! “Uhm!” He groaned!

Auggie collapsed in a fit of his own laughter, toppling backwards into the ground and holding his hands against his sides! “I... I can’t! Oh my god!” He breathed, kicking his legs up in the air!

“Shut up!” Chuck whined, taking one of his balls and throwing it right into Auggie’s face! It splattered instantly, and Auggie spit out chunks of snow that had gotten into his mouth. 

“That’s it!” Auggie grunted, tackling Chuck and playfully jabbing at him!

Stella giggled as her two best friends wrestled in the snow, content with the atmosphere of the night. Despite that, she couldn’t help but notice how cold she was. She hoped that they would all go to 

Auggie or Chuck’s house after a while and make the hot cocoa that she was promised. “Guys! Guys!” Stella called out! “Can we go now!?” She tried to say, but she couldn’t get them to calm down enough to pay attention to her. 

Suddenly, she saw a sharp glare out of the corner of her eye, and she held her hand up to shield herself from it. She could tell that the light was distant, but as Stella began to lower her hands, she recognized the glare immediately. 

“Guys!” Stella said, shivering. “There’s a c-car coming!” she called out!

Auggie stopped his fighting to get a look at the supposed car, but Chuck was unwittingly still attempting to pin his friend down into the snow! “Stop!” Auggie protested!

“Nice try, chicken!” Chuck snickered!

“Chuck! Look!” Auggie called out!

Chuck slowly flicked his head upward and stared at the oncoming lights, seemingly confused.

“It’s him…it’s got to be him!” Auggie said.   
“Run!” Chuck commanded!

Auggie and Chuck scrambled to their feet and began to think about their escape plan. “If we run down the road, he’s gonna turn us into roadkill! We can’t outrun that thing, man!” Chuck protested! Stella began to panic as well; all that she could see was a speeding car hurling toward her, and she knew that it was going to run her down if she didn’t move. She couldn’t move. She was terrified. 

“Crap, crap!” Auggie said! “We can go in the cornfield; he is not going to drive over his own crops.”

“Are you sure about that?” Chuck asked. “This is Tommy we’re talking about, here!”

“Do you want to ask him, or do you want to get out of here!?” Auggie asked.

Stella still wasn’t moving. The car was only seconds away from mowing her down. “Stella, come on!” Auggie said! He grabbed her hand and pulled her into the cornfields ahead.

Stella snapped out of her trance and ran alongside Auggie on the cornfields path. Behind her, she heard the car screech to a halt in front of the Milner’s house, and she could hear a few car doors slamming shut a few moments later.

“We saw you!” A voice called out from behind them! 

“Shit, shit, shit!” Chuck hisses! “They know we’re here!”

“You think!?” Stella called out!

“Steinberg!” Another voice called out from behind the trio.

“He knows it’s me!” Chuck exclaimed! “Jesus, he knows!”

“Shut up!” Auggie huffed. “Come on!”

The three teens trudged through the heavy snow, filled with fear as they looked for a way out.

“Agh!” Chuck called out as he tripped and crashed face first into the snow! “Cold, cold!” He cried!

“Chuck!” Stella said, stopping and returning to her fallen friend. 

“I’m okay!” Chuck said, scrambling to his feet. 

Stella looked back toward the farmhouse, and she froze up once again when she spotted a few dark figures in the distance; they were sprinting through the cornfield, chasing after the trio.

“Don’t move!” One of them called out. It was clearer this time, and easily recognizable.

“It’s Milner!” Chuck panicked! 

Stella couldn’t move. She was freezing up with fear again. She wanted to do something – anything – to get herself and her friends out of this situation, but she couldn’t think when she was terrified. Why couldn’t she do something? Was she a coward? She didn’t understand herself, and now she was going to suffer because of it.

“Stella, what are you doing!?” Auggie asked when he realized that Stella wasn’t following them anymore. Stella continued to stare at the figures, as if she hadn’t heard him. 

“Stell!” Chuck called out as he ran back to collect her. He grabbed her by the hand and tried to pull her away from the spot where she had frozen up. “Stella, come on!”   
She stumbled as he pulled her along, and Chuck relaxed on his grip in order to keep Stella on her feet. She tried to get herself to move alongside her friend, but it was useless. They were already caught. 

“HA!” One of the jocks cried out as he grabbed Stella by her jacket! He had lengthy black hair, and was shorter than the others. His name was Kyle Davidson. He held her tight and made sure that she wasn’t going anywhere. He maneuvered around Stella and held both of her arms behind her back. 

The second jock swaggered past Stella, and pursued Auggie. He had shorter, brown hair, but he was fairly tall. He was Alfred Calvin. “Where are you going?” Alfred asked sadistically. 

Auggie clumsily jogged away from the group, but he was tackled by Alfred before he could get away. He fell on top of Auggie and kept him pinned down in the snow with a nasty smirk. 

“Well, well, well…” The third and final jock muttered. He swung a wooden baseball bat in his right hand, and he ran his left hand through his slicked back hair. He wore the same mustard and forest green jacket that Stella had seen on the driver of the Pontiac Catalina, and his jeans were coated with fresh snow. “…fancy seein’ you here, Steinberg!” He exclaimed.  
It was Tommy Milner, and it looked like he meant business. His face was livid from the cold, and the bags under his eyes were blush red. 

“L-look, you don’t have to do this.” Chuck said quickly, clenching his hands into fists and staring at Tommy, eye-to-eye. “There was no harm done, right?” He asked awkwardly.

Tommy swung his bat around one hand, and let it drag along behind him. He glided toward Chuck. “Not yet.” Tommy answered, biting his bottom lip. “This is private property, douchebag.” 

“Yeah, I-I figured.” Chuck stuttered; eyes wide open. 

“So why were you throwing stuff at my house, Chuck?” Tommy asked, getting closer to the boy. “I mean, if you ‘figured’ that this was private property, you should’ve known that It was wrong.”

“Not s-stuff, man…it was just snow…just snow!” Chuck answered. “It doesn’t even matter, right?” He laughed nervously. “It’s snowing pretty bad right now, so…your house would have been ruined anyway. Right?”

Tommy said nothing, obviously unamused. He stopped a couple of inches away from Chuck and stared into his eyes, giving him the resemblance of a dominant wolf.

Chuck willed himself to stare back, but he was undeniably afraid.

“You gonna cry, lard ass?” Asked Kyle.

Tommy smirked at that statement. “Maybe if we’re lucky, he’ll start begging.” He said. His lip twitched when he spoke, and he glared briefly at his friend before he looked back at Chuck.

Both jocks chuckled alongside Tommy; Chuck’s confidence began to waver.

“So, let me get this straight…you three decide to come onto my farm, and assault my house with snowballs…” Tommy started.

“Uh huh.” Chuck answered. “Good ol’ Christmas fun.” 

“…good ol’ Christmas fun.” Tommy repeated. “And you say it doesn’t matter since it’s snowing right now, so my house would have been covered in snow anyway, which - let me see if this is right - which would mean that you’re off the hook, since you did nothing wrong here...is that how it is?” 

Chuck hesitated before he answered the question. “P-pretty much…yeah?” He stuttered. 

Tommy licked his lips as he pondered over the answer, and for a moment there, Stella thought that he was going to bash Chuck upside the head with his baseball bat. 

Tommy glanced at Stella, as if reading her thoughts, and she felt her body jump when they locked eyes. Despite the hostility in them, Stella could see something else within. She couldn’t understand it, but she knew it was there. 

Tommy looked back at Chuck and stood silent for a few more moments. Then, as if something had snapped inside of him, his angry frown turned into a deceivable grin, and he began to chuckle. 

The two jocks began to laugh with their leader once again, and Chuck glanced at Tommy, confused.

“Alright, alright…I get it.” Tommy said, lowering his gaze and looking at Chuck with a much more respectable gesture. “You were messing around, it’s fine.”

“Really?” Chuck asked, half smiling. 

“Yeah. I mean, you guys were just bored, right? You wanted some fun, so you just threw a couple of snowballs at my house.” Tommy said with reassurance. “No big deal. Nothing got damaged, I hope.” He laughed, playfully throwing a punch into Chuck’s shoulder.

“No…nothing got damaged.” Chuck said, letting out a breath of relief and rubbing the spot where he had been play-punched. “I’m sorry man, really. It was stupid anyway.” 

“Hey! Relax.” Tommy grinned, offering his hand for Chuck to shake. “No hard feelings.” He said calmly.

Chuck smiled back at Tommy and shook his hand with a clear conscience. 

Stella was shocked. Milner was never somebody who offered peace with anybody before; in fact, he was the harbinger of absolute chaos. What was influencing him tonight? “That’s it?” Stella asked bravely.

Tommy turned to Stella and blinked a few times. “Yeah.” He said. “That’s it.” 

“You beat on grade-school kids for less than this.” Stella commented. “What makes us special?”

Before Tommy could answer, Chuck interrupted. “It doesn’t matter! What matters is that we’re cool, right?” He asked.

“Obviously.” Tommy smirked. 

“Cool. So, uh…Stella…has some hot chocolate that she’d be glad to make for you – us, if-if you want to…” Chuck started, looking back at Stella for confirmation. 

Stella avoided eye contact with Chuck. She was hesitant about making a refreshing beverage for someone like Tommy.

Chuck caught on to her resentment but continued talking anyway. “…yeah, well, only if you want to.” Chuck said, but as he turned toward Tommy, something hit him in his stomach, and he fell onto his knees. 

Tommy had struck him with his bat.

“You’re dumber than you look.” Milner grumbled, before bending down and grabbing Chuck by his jacket. “And you smell like piss.” 

“No!” Stella cried out, struggling against the jock who was holding her arms behind her body! “Let him go! Let us go!” She pleaded! Tommy ignored her and forced Chuck up and onto his feet.

Tommy brought Chuck’s arm back at an irregular angle. OW! Ow, ow! Tommy, come on man! I said I was sorry!” 

“Shut up.” Milner said. “You really thought we were cool, Big Pig?” Tommy asked sarcastically. 

“Yeah, I did!” Chuck said! He was beginning to get angry. “That’s Perfidy! A war crime, you piece of shit!” 

Tommy chewed on his bottom lip, and pondered on what Chuck had said, as if he was having trouble understanding the information. “Start walking.” He commanded, grabbing a hold of Chuck’s arm with   
one hand, and holding onto his bat with the other.

Chuck struggled against his situation but was forced to walk forward anyways. Tommy followed behind him, peering ahead. “You guys gonna beat each other off, or what!? Bring them too!” Tommy yelled at   
the two jocks. 

Alfred climbed off his back and pulled him out of the snow. Auggie’s face was bruised purple from the cold, and his eyelids seemed to be frozen shut. He spit out a patch of snow out of his mouth and coughed lightly. His lips were swollen blue, and his hair was freshly frosted. “I… I can’t see. Yuh…yuh muhssed uhp muh eyes…” He mumbled. 

“Just walk.” Alfred said. 

Kyle did the same – he pushed her from behind and forced her to walk ahead.

She was frozen with fear again, but she had no choice but to move. They were in deep trouble now.


	3. Punishment

“You know, this month has been pretty crappy for me.” Tommy started. “First, Kirk started to exercise so he’s catching up to me on the field. Then the Jennings yard didn’t even have a snowman for me to knock down, and now I find you three trying to attack my house? Worst, Christmas, eeeeveeerr! Am I right boys?” He asked as the jocks nodded along.

“Tommy, it’s freezing!” Chuck whined!

“Observant as ever, Big Pig.” Tommy said with a sarcastic grin. The other two jocks chuckled.

“And I can’t feel my arms, man.” Chuck said.

“That’s just too bad.” Tommy replied. 

“Tommy, you need to let us go.” Stella said to him. 

“Oh, yeah?” Tommy grumbled. “But we’re having fun, what’s the matter?” Tommy asked mischievously. 

“My dad is a deputy, and he can make sure you go to jail.” Stella said. “Maybe even Prison, considering that kidnapping is a felony in Pennsylvania.”

“Did you hear that boys?” Tommy asked arrogantly. “We’re goin’ to jail!” He laughed! The jocks laughed alongside him. Stella thought that their laughs sounded like mating calls for pigs.

Chuck started to plead. “I’m serious, Tommy! You don’t have to do this! My dad, he can pay for- “He started, but Tommy’s bat had struck him in the stomach again, shutting him up. 

“You talk too much.” Tommy said. He bent down to meet Chuck eye to eye and sneered as he spoke. “Don’t worry…you’ll definitely be ‘paying’ for this, Big Pig.” He said quietly. “And just so you know, the next time you stop walking, my bat is meeting the back of your head.” He said.

“Good to know.” Chuck said nervously as he continued walking through the snow.

Stella stared at the back of Tommy’s head, and felt an unnatural urge to ambush him and save her friends. But at the same time, she felt something else; something that stopped her from wanting to. She wondered what it was. Was it her pacifist nature, or something else?

Before long, the group approached a faint shadow in the distance that Tommy seemed to recognize. He even smiled when he saw it. It was a scarecrow that had been hitched up on a tall, wooden post. It had an angry face made from old leather, a small wrinkly nose, and two eye-sockets in its head. Woven pieces of straw were hanging out of the top of its head, which slightly swayed in the wind. It wore a farmer’s shirt and blue jeans, and orange gloves that were fitted onto its arms. The arms were made of planks of wood, and there was a large, gaping hole in the middle of its stomach. 

“Hellooooo, Harold.” Tommy said creepily, looking up at the scarecrow with malicious intent. The jocks moved Stella and Auggie into position a few feet away from the scarecrow, while Tommy moved Chuck closer to it. 

“Your scarecrow?” Chuck asked. “Can't you just beat me up instead?”

“…what?” Tommy laughed. “You want me to kick your ass?”

“If it means I don’t have to look at…at, THAT…” Chuck said, gesturing to the scarecrow on the post. “Then yes.”

“Uh huh…is that your fetish, Steinburg? Getting beat up?” Tommy asked with a malevolent grin. “Or maybe you just like me that much.”

Stella frowned with disgust, and Auggie raised a confused eyebrow.

“What…what’s wrong with you, dude!? I’m not gay!” Chuck said defensively. He took a step backwards as Tommy started to walk toward him. 

“Sure you are…isn’t that why you like messing with me so much?” Tommy asked. Chuck backed further away from the bully until his back smacked into “Harold” the Scarecrow and he was left with nowhere else to go. 

“I bet you stare at my ass in school, and spy on me in the showers too.” 

The two of them were mere inches away from one another, and Tommy was still staring Chuck down, eager to get him to submit. “Say that you’re a faggot, Steinburg.” Tommy groaned quietly. 

“…No.” Chuck said, holding his own ground. He was suddenly slammed up against the scarecrow behind him, and Tommy’s hand was violently wrapped around his throat in the next instant. “SAY IT!” Tommy yelled into his face!

“Stop!” Stella demanded! 

“SAY IT!” Tommy yelled again, delivering a punch to Chuck’s stomach.

“No!” Chuck wheezed, pushing back against Tommy’s strength, but failing to get him off. “Let me go, asshole!”

“’Let me go, Asshole.’!” Tommy mocked. “Why don’t you do something about it, huh?” He asked.

“Go to hell, Milner.” Chuck said, nervously starting to walk past the bully.

Tommy immediately leaped forward, crushing Chuck’s body against the scarecrow, and tightening his grip around the young boy’s throat. "If the next words out of your mouth aren’t what I wanna hear, then you’re not going to be able to use words no more.” He threatened. 

“Tommy, stop!” Stella cried out! “Just take me! Let him- “ 

“Shut up!” Tommy commanded. “Say it, now!”

“No!” Chuck croaked. 

“You- “Tommy stuttered. He cut himself off mid-sentence and lingered for a few moments. He thought to himself and remained silent as he did. His eyes were wide open, stuck on Chuck’s face, and his mouth was gaped; it’s as if he had suddenly been frozen in place. 

Then, Tommy smiled. “Okay. Fine.”

He let go of Chuck completely, letting the younger boy drop into the snow like a doll. Chuck gasped for breath and let himself remain collapsed on the ground. 

“You know what…I think I’m gonna let you little shits get out of here.” Tommy said. 

“Seriously?” Chuck asked, looking at Tommy with bug-eyes. “T-thank you! Oh, I-“

“But…I need you to do something for me, first.” Tommy said calmly, itching the underside of his nose as he spoke. 

“Huh?” Chuck croaked.

“I need a hand for Harold.” Tommy said, gesturing to the scarecrow on the post.

“A…a hand?” Chuck asked fearfully, glancing at one of his hands. “You’re gonna take- “

“No! Geez, what do you think I am, a monster?” Tommy asked, grinning and looking down at Chuck. “I just want you to- “

“…you want me to lick it? Eat it, what?” Chuck asked sassily.

Tommy’s face flinched when he was interrupted, and he kneeled down toward Chuck. “I want you to take him down.” 

“What?” Chuck asked. 

“I didn’t know you were deaf, Steinburg. I’ll speak up.” Tommy said, swaggering toward Chuck, and gently placing a hand on his shoulder. He leaned into the boy’s ear and yelled:

“TAKE. HIM. DOWN!”. 

“Okay…okay…” Chuck said. He shakily pushed himself off the ground and trudged through the snow. He grabbed Harold by his waist and lifted him off the wooden post. “Where do you want him?” He asked, avoiding eye contact with Tommy. 

“The ground’s fine.” Tommy huffed. Chuck dropped the scarecrow onto the snow below his feet, and nervously looked back at Tommy, wondering what was going to happen next. “Now what?” He asked. 

Tommy glared at Chuck and turned halfway around to look at his buddies. “Davidson, over here.” Tommy commanded, snapping his finger. 

The jock - Davidson - joined Tommy at his side, cracking his knuckles as he stood. 

“Let’s get Steinburg up there.” Tommy smirked, lunging forward and quickly grabbing Chuck! Davidson followed suit, grabbing Chuck on the other side and lifting him upward. 

“No! Come on Tommy, let me go!” Chuck cried out as the two boys dragged him toward the wooden post! “Don’t, please!” 

“Stop!” Stella cried out, but the third jock had a firm grip on her. “Auggie, do something!” she commanded!

Auggie stared helplessly as the two boys began to lift Chuck off his feet and hoist him on top of the wooden post that had once held up Harold the Scarecrow. Auggie looked down at the ground, disappointed and scared. He was injured by the blistering cold, and he was powerless to do anything.

“Get him up there, yeah!” Davidson grunted! “Get his undies!”

“No, no!” Chuck protests as Davidson lifts the back of Chuck’s shirt and grabs the lining of his underwear. “Let go of the bragas!” Chuck says! Davidson pulls Chuck’s underwear up as high as the elastic material would allow, and slips them around the top of the wooden post. 

Chuck squealed like a tortured cow in the middle of the cornfield, flailing aimlessly and kicking out with his legs in order to get himself free. He was hanging off Harold’s post, dangling by the hems of his underwear. 

“Let me go, get me off, get me off this thing!” He cried out!

“Not until you say it, hog squeal!” Tommy said. 

“My balls, man!” Chuck wheezed! “I-I can’t feel…” Chuck tried to say something else, but his throat was suddenly crushed by Tommy’s hands. He gagged and pressed his hands against Tommy’s face in protest, but the bully wouldn’t budge. Stella watched in horror as her best friend was getting his body taken advantage of by a bully. A pathetic, nonredeemable bully. The situation was escalating too far, too fast, and she had to do something.

Stella struggled to fight through her fear. “No!” her voice cracked! “Stop it!” 

“Stahp!” Auggie mumbled, joining into the revolt, even as his lips were still swollen blue. “Leht him guh!” 

Filled with an internal motivation, Stella shoved her elbow into the jock that was holding her in place. He bent over in pain, setting her free. She took the opportunity and dashed forward, arms ready to push Tommy away from her friend, but she was caught by Tommy’s backhand. It struck her hard across her right cheek, sending her crashing into the snow. It was purely instinctual, and Tommy didn’t seem to realize who he had struck. 

“Say…” Tommy whispered, staring into Chuck’s wide, bloodshot eyes. “…it.” 

“I…” Chuck wheezed, his eyes rolling back into his head. 

“What?” Tommy asked impatiently, lightening up his grip on Chuck’s neck just enough for him to get out what he needed to say. 

“I’m…” Chuck rattled. “…a f….” 

Tommy’s eye twitched as Chuck attempted to speak. He released Chuck from his grip, allowing Chuck to fall limp on the post. Chuck hoarsely squealed out in pain again as his boxers violently rode up against his crotch. 

“What did you say?” Tommy asked. 

“You...you heard me…” Chuck coughed. 

“No, I don’t think I did.” Tommy said, grabbing Chuck by the scruff of his shirt and pulling him downward, causing his boxers to stretch out even further! “You’re going to have to speak up.” 

“…come…come on…” Chuck breathed. His head was hanging low so that he was staring at the snow beneath Tommy’s feet. “Just…”

Tommy shoved his hand into Chuck’s head of hair and yanked upward, forcing them to be face to face again. “What are you?” 

“A…a faggot.” Chuck finally said, his arms dangling limply from his sides. 

“What are you!?” Tommy repeated, holding Chuck’s head up higher. 

“A faggot!” Chuck shouted! 

“What, ARE you!?” Tommy yelled! 

“A FAGGOT!” Chuck cried out as loudly as he could! He was hanging dreadfully from the wooden post, and he was painfully aware of it now.

Tommy grinned with satisfaction and delivered a final punch into the middle of Chuck’s gut. This caused the brim of Chuck’s underwear to tear away, dropping the boy into the snow below. Chuck’s eyes floated shut, and he lay with his limbs spread apart, utterly defeated. 

“You sure are.” Tommy said, spitting at Chuck’s feet as a final protest of victory. 

Stella lay in the freezing snow, staring at Chuck; her body shook with dread. She couldn’t believe that any of this was happening – it was horrific. She couldn’t fathom the fact that somebody could be as evil as Tommy Milner. He was as every bit as human as herself, and her friends, but he didn’t seem to value general morality in the same way that she, and her friends, did. She started to feel upset. She was upset that she couldn’t understand him, just as she had always understood everything else; she understood her friends, she understood strangers, she understood herself. Yet, she couldn’t understand Tommy. She couldn’t understand him at all.

Tommy turned toward where Auggie was standing. “You’re next.” He said. 

Auggie’s eyes shot open and he began to shake his head in protest. “No.” He started. 

“I dunno, man.” Alfred said, looking at Tommy. “It’s getting cold out here. Let’s just go home, dude.” He said. Kyle nodded along, agreeing with his friend. 

Tommy paused and pondered on what his friends were saying. “You guys wanna leave?” He asked. 

“Yeah, man. Let’s ditch these nerds.” Kyle said with a small chuckle. “We can go fuck up Kirk’s yard, if you want."

Tommy glared at the two jocks without a sign of sympathy toward their plights for comfort. “I didn’t realize that I was hanging out with the girls tonight.” He said resentfully. “Silly me.”

Alfred rose his eyebrows, and shifted uncomfortably in place. “But I’m starving.” 

“Boo hoo.” Tommy replied, slowly trudging toward Auggie. “We’ll go get dinner after this, you pussy.” 

“Fine.” Alfred said, holding Auggie with both of his arms. 

“I knew you’d see it my way.” Tommy said, reaching his free hand out and grabbing Auggie by the jacket. 

As Tommy brought Auggie closer toward the wooden post, Stella looked up at him from her spot on the ground. She thought about her approach to the situation; she had tried an upfront and confrontational solution: that did not work. So, what was left? The diplomatic solution. 

She reached out and wrapped her fingers around Tommy’s ankle, and gently held it in place. Tommy was caught off guard by the gesture and stared angrily down at the girl. They locked eyes once again, and Stella was suddenly empowered by an emotion that she didn’t know that she could feel.

“Get off me.” Tommy growled. He seemed like he wanted to say more, but as he formed the words on his lips, they were lost in translation. 

“Only if you get off of him.” Stella said. 

“Are you kidding me?” Tommy frowned, still holding Auggie.

“No.” Stella said, slowly starting to stand up on her wobbly legs. Her hand left Tommy’s ankle, and returned to her side. 

“Unless you wanna wake up 3 feet under the snow, I think you should stop talking.” Tommy said.

Stella blinked nervously and looked down at the ground, unsure of what to say next. She was never a good negotiator when it came to people that she lacked respect for. Come to think of it, she was never a good negotiator with people at all. 

“Just stop for a second.” She said, looking at Tommy’s face. 

“Well, since you asked so nicely…I don’t think I will.” Tommy smirked.

“Tommy.” Stella said calmly. “I just want you to stop.” 

“And what if I don’t?” Tommy asked. “You gonna tell your daddy on me?” 

“No, probably not.” She said, looking back down at the snow. 

“…what?” Tommy asked. For the first time this evening, he was genuinely confused. 

“I’m not gonna tell my dad on you.” Stella repeated. “I’m probably not going to tell anybody about this. I’m probably…just going to just go up to my room, and…cry… into my pillow, and… try and forget about it by tomorrow. That’s prob-probably what I’m going to do.” 

Tommy looked dumbfounded in the moment; his face was anguished, tired, and curious all at the same time. “That’s pretty sad.” He said, slightly amused.

“Yeah.” Stella replied. The two stood awkwardly across from one another, Stella afraid to say anything, and Tommy – for some reason – doing his best to keep his cool.

“Uh, Tommy.” Kyle said.

“Shut up.” Tommy said. He let go of Auggie and swaggered closer toward Stella; his eyes were locked onto hers, and his head was hanging down. His mouth frowned with a twitch, and he rubbed the underside of his nose, before tilting his head up and stopping a few feet away from Stella. 

“What the hell is your problem?” Tommy asked, biting his bottom lip. 

Stella’s fear was gone now; she didn’t notice. She took a deep breath, and responded with her one and only honest answer:

“You.”

Tommy half smirked; half smiled at the statement. For the first time tonight, he seemed to be happy. This was different from his typical satisfaction: it was genuine happiness. Stella was surprised at the smile, and apparently, so was Tommy. The aggression in his eyes seemed to fade away, and his eyebrows were lifting themselves up. It was if he had been holding something inside of him for a long time, and the interaction between him and Stella had robbed him of the responsibility of keeping it to himself. 

“Dude!” Davidson called out!

“What!?” Tommy shouted back, whipping around. His friend did not need to answer him. Tommy could see what was wrong. In fact, everybody could.  
The wind was getting stronger, the snow was falling harder, and the air was getting colder. The wind whistled loudly through the cornfield, and snow was starting to fly sideways.

“What the?” Tommy asked, staring up at the weather. 

“What’s going on!?” Alfred asked!

“How should I know!?” Tommy asked.

The wind effortlessly knocked Auggie onto his side, and the flying snow started to assault his face. Chuck, still laying in defeat, was beginning to suffer the same fate.  
“Blizzard.” Stella whispered to herself. The snow was pushing against her, and the wind was starting to push her off balance. “It’s a blizzard!”

“I’m getting the hell out of here!” Alfred said! He took off as a jogger’s pace toward the end of the cornfield, struggling to keep himself running as his legs sank into the deep snow.

“Same, man!” Davidson called out! He trudged toward Tommy and gripped his arm with his hand. “Let’s get out of here!” 

Tommy felt Davidson grab his arm, but he chose to ignore him. Tommy looked back at Stella and stared at her with a blank face. Stella stared back at Tommy, nervously getting ready to bolt away in case he tried anything else. But he didn’t. He didn’t try anything – he just continued to stare. 

They were locking eyes again – but this time, it was for a different reason.

“Tommy, LET’S GO!” Davidson screamed!

Tommy suddenly jumped, as if he had just snapped out of a trance. He looked at Davidson, and pushed him down the path. “Move, you idiot!” Tommy said, shoving Davidson down the path as they trudged together. 

Stella watched as Tommy and Davidson disappeared into the oncoming snowstorm, their silhouettes becoming dark and eventually fading away into the storm itself.  
The goons were gone.

“Guys!” Stella shrieked as she rushed to her two friends that were laying in the snow. “Are you okay!?” She asked, frantically checking on Chuck’s face. His cheeks were red, and his eyelashes were coated with fresh snow. “He crushed my twinkies…ugh!” Chuck grunted! 

Stella chuckled. “At least he didn’t crush your spirit.” 

“No, that’s my mom’s job.” Chuck said. 

“We have to get out of here, a blizzard is hitting us!” She exclaimed!

“You don’t say?” Chuck said sarcastically. “I thought Santa was just flying by.” 

“Shut up.” Stella said, beginning to slide one arm under Chuck’s shoulder. “Auggie, help me!” She ordered.

“Okay.” Auggie mumbled. He put his arm under Chuck’s right shoulder and hoisted his friend up, working with Stella to get him onto his feet. The three friends stood together – Chuck in the middle, with 

Stella and Auggie on his sides – and held on to each other tightly. 

“Where should we go!?” Auggie asked.

Chuck’s head dangled onto Auggie’s shoulder, and he closed his eyes in order to keep the violent snowstorm from attacking them.

"Let's go!" Stella exclaimed! “We need to find shelter! Let’s go back towards his house!”

“’He’ who!?” Auggie shouted sarcastically! “I know you’re not talking about-“

“Tommy, yes! We have to!” Stella said! 

“No!” Auggie argued! “We can keep- “

“AUGGIE!” Stella barked! “Chuck is hurt, and Tommy ran the other way! He won’t be there, now let’s GO!” She ordered! 

Auggie nodded nervously, and began to carry Chuck down the cornfield. “Buddy, you’re going to have to start walking! This is not a piggyback ride!” 

“Yeah, yeah, fine.” Chuck mumbled.

The three teenagers soon disappeared into the snowstorm. Behind them, Harold the Scarecrow stared after them as the snowstorm began to bury him alive.  
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 

“There’s the house!” Stella cried out!

The three teenagers were approaching the exit to the cornfield, and Tommy Milner’s farmhouse was just ahead, barely visible. The blizzard was getting worse and worse by the second; the cold began burn the teenager’s skins, and the flying snow was making it impossible to see. Stella, Chuck and Auggie slowly emerged out of the cornfield, still holding each other.

Tommy’s car was parked in front of his farmhouse, dark and powerless.

“Are you sure about this!?” Auggie asked over the roar of the blizzard! “What if his stepdad answers the door!”

“Yes, I’m sure! They’ll let us in, Auggie!” Stella replied!

They approached the front porch and came across a severely unfortunate sight; The Milner’s porch was completely sunken into the snow. The front door was completely snowed in, meaning that they couldn’t get into the farmhouse. 

“Crap!” Chuck moaned! “What do we do now!?” 

“The car!” Stella exclaimed! 

She and Auggie worked with each other to turn Chuck around and lead him down the front porch of the farmhouse. They made their way to the side of Tommy’s car, and Stella winced painfully as she gripped the handle to the back door. She pulled on the handle as hard as she could, eventually managing to haul the door open. She pushed against it, holding in place while the wind fought against it. “Get inside, hurry!” She exclaimed!

Auggie shuffled over toward the back of the car and prepared Chuck for the journey in. “Okay, duck your head buddy!” Auggie shouted! Chuck swerved downward, avoiding the roof of the car as he collapsed into the backseat. “Move, Chuck!” Auggie commanded! Chuck painfully slid down the backseat and into the opposite side of the car, leaving room for Auggie to slide in beside him. “Stella, come on!” Auggie said!

Stella held onto the back door with one arm, and cautiously made her way into the back of the car at the same time. Auggie grabbed her side and gently led her inside, and as soon as Stella’s arm had let go of the car door, the wind mercilessly slammed it shut!

Stella, Auggie and Chuck were now safely inside of Tommy’s backseat.

“Shit, shit, shit.” Chuck said. “It’s f-fucking freezing in here, guys.” 

“Did he leave the keys in the car?” Stella asked the group. “Maybe I can warm it up.”

Chuck glanced toward the driver’s wheel and found a pair of keys hanging out of the ignition. “He s-sure did.” Chuck said, half grinning. “W-w-what an i-idiot.”

Stella leapt out of her seat and reached over to the driver’s wheel, grabbing the keys and turning them. The car sputtered hopelessly, and a large gust of black smoke shot out of the tailpipe of the car.  
Stella tried turning the keys again, and the car sputtered even worse than it had before. “Come on, come on!” She grunted. 

“It’s not gonna work.” Auggie said with a disappointed tone. “The fuel line is probably frozen, or- “

“Shut up!” Stella exclaimed. “It has to work!” 

Auggie gulped as Stella tried the ignition again; the car barely sputtered, and it fell silent. 

“We’re d-doomed.” Chuck moaned. 

“Yup.” Auggie agreed. 

“No.” Stella turned the Ignition. “We’re.” Stella turned the Ignition. “Not!” Stella turned the ignition. The engine suddenly roared to life, causing Chuck and Auggie to jump, and giving Stella a satisfactory smile! “You did it!” Auggie cheered!

“Told you.” She giggled.

“W-whatever, just put the fire on.” Chuck moaned. 

Stella analyzed the dashboard of the car and found the knob for the heater. She moved the dial to the left and pressed a silver button directly beside it. “Okay, it’s on.”

“Finally.” Chuck said. 

Stella slumped into the back of the car beside her friends and huddled closer to them in order to stay warm. 

The windows of the car were completely frosted, and the snowstorm was getting more and more violent outside. Even the windshield was having a hard time with the weather. Flurries were striking the glass at rapid speed, and if it hadn’t been for the car, the three teenagers would not have made it off of the farm in one piece. 

“Hey…Chuck…” Auggie started to say. “…about earlier, I…I’m sorry I didn’t help…I mean…” 

“Forget about it.” Chuck breathed. “That was pretty screwed up for all of us.”

“…yeah.” Auggie said, taking a breath.

“Is everyone okay?” Stella asked.

“No.” Chuck and Auggie replied at the same time. 

“I think I have snow in my crack.” Chuck groaned. 

“That’s nice, Chuck.” Auggie said. 

“Yeah, not really.” Chuck said, maneuvering his butt around. “It’s like, right up in there.”

“Okay, we get it.” Stella protested. “I’m just glad that you guys weren’t killed.”

“We could have been!” Auggie said! “Thanks to Chuck, we’re probably now at the top of Tommy’s shit list. Thanks, so much.”

“Hey, how was I supposed to know that he was gonna catch us!?” Chuck asked. 

“We were chucking piss-induced snowballs at a private house! How would we not get caught!?” 

“Because he wasn’t supposed to be home!”

“But he showed UP, because it was HIS HOUSE!” Auggie half-shouted!

“So!? It was just bad timing!” 

“That’s what your mom said!” Auggie grunted, starting a weak slap fight with his friend.

“Hey, HEY!” Stella cried out! “Knock it off!”

Chuck and Auggie ceased the slap fight and huffed dramatically as they started to relax. 

The heaters in the vehicle were starting to take effect now, which soothed the teens. Chuck rubbed his hands together, Stella wrapped her arms around her chest, and Auggie was breathing into his cupped palms. They were still uncomfortably cold, but they were better off in the car than they had been outside.

“Geez, couldn’t Tommy have gotten a car that had working heaters?” Chuck asked.

“They’re working.” Auggie replied.

“Could have fooled me.” Chuck whined. “It’s still freezing in here.”

“Yeah, well I’m not gonna hold you to keep you warm.” Auggie replied.

“Oh please, you wish you could cuddle up.” 

“Oh, like you and Lola?”

Chuck’s eyes widened, and he pointed a still finger at Auggie’s face. “Don’t you ever talk about Lola like that!”

“Like what?”

“You know!”

“Do I know?”

“Stella, tell him he’s being obnoxious!” Chuck demanded!  
“I’m only being obnoxious because you’re-“

Stella started to zone out. She stared out of the frosty car window and peered into the cornfield. It was blurry, dark, and the cornstalks were waving violently with the strong winds. She began to wonder something: Where had Tommy gone? He had run in the opposite direction than they had, but why? Other than the farmhouse, and the nearby barn, there was no other place for Tommy to go. What if he never made it out of the cornfield?

“Hey, guys.” Stella started, but the two were back to their slap fight once again. “Hey!”

The boys stopped and gave each other final slaps on the shoulders before turning their attention to Stella. “What if Tommy didn’t make it out?” She asks.

“…then we celebrate.” Auggie says. “I mean, I would.”  
“I’d celebrate twice.” Chuck says.

“I’m serious.” Stella said. “He didn’t run this way…what if he got lost, or stuck or something?”  
“What do you care, anyway?” Chuck asked. 

“I don’t. I mean…I just…it’s just what I’m thinking.” Stella said, looking back out of the window. She stared back into the cornfield, as if waiting for Tommy to come running out of it.  
“…Stella. Even if he is out there, there’s nothing we can do about it.” Auggie replied. “This storm is gonna kill anyone that doesn’t find shelter, so…if he’s out there, he’s gone now.” 

“Don’t say that!” Stella exclaimed! “You saw how hard it was for us to find our way out, maybe Tommy-“

“Then that’s his fault, not ours!” Chuck said! “I say we drive his car back to my place and stay there until the storm blows over.”  
Stella stared at him in disbelief and anger.  
“Come on!” Chuck pleaded! “Hot chooocolaaate!” 

Stella looked away from the boys and stared back out of the window. Although she didn’t like nor respect Tommy as a person, she knew that he was still a human being. The thought of him being stuck in the cornfield gave her horrific chills, and she couldn’t just live with that feeling.

Auggie noticed Stella’s discomfort, and sighed heavily before offering his words of advice. “Stella, he probably ran out through another exit. He bolted pretty fast, so he probably had an idea of where he was going. He knows this land better than us, so he’s not gonna get lost in there.” He explained to her. “And…let’s say he DID get stuck, or can’t get out…if you’re thinking of helping him, we can’t. We’ll get stuck out there too.” 

Stella tried her hardest to keep her tears inside of her head, but when she glanced at Auggie, she was unable to save one. It fell slowly down her face and fell onto the car seat. 

“We can’t go back, okay?” Auggie said gently.  
Stella shook her head, and looked pitifully down at the car floor, arms crossed over her chest. She was upset. 

“I say he deserves it.” Chuck started. “You saw what he did to me, right!? My balls still hurt, and I might never have kids because of him!”  
“Dude!” Auggie exclaimed!  
“Whatever! I just don’t care about where he is. Let’s get out of here, before the car dies for good.” Chuck said.  
“For once, I completely agree with Chuck.” Auggie said. 

Stella continued staring at the floor of the car, distant to her two friends. She looked back out of the window, and she furrowed her eyes at the cornfield. She had made up her mind. “I’m going to go back.” She said.

“What!?” Chuck and Auggie both said at the same time.  
“You heard me.” Stella said sassily. “I’m going back in there. I have to be sure that-“

“That what!? That Tommy is alive? You find him, then what are you going to do, invite him back to my place for hot cocoa and smiles!? He doesn’t care about us, and we don’t care about him!” Chuck exclaimed!  
“I made up my mind.” Stella said sternly. She wiped away the oncoming tears from her eyes and straightened up her glasses. “I’m going, and you guys aren’t going to stop me.”

Auggie and Chuck were both speechless. They had rarely seen Stella during her “take charge” times, and whenever they did, they made sure to stay out of her way. 

“So, w-who’s going with me” Stella asked nervously.

Auggie pointed at Chuck.  
Chuck pointed at Auggie. 

Stella scoffed and slapped her palms against her thighs, obviously annoyed. “Fine! I’ll go by myself.” 

“Stella.” Auggie said. She turned around, awaiting Auggie’s statement. “Just…just be back, fast. We’ll wait for you.”

Stella nodded, pushed her hair back behind both of her ears, and took a huge gulp. This was it; there was no going back once she took a step out of that door.  
“Tell Tommy that I told him to go frost himself.” Chuck said. Stella rolled her eyes and grabbed the cold door handle that was under the frosted window. She was shaking, her heart was beating, and every  
single one of her bodily instincts was telling her to stay in the car and to forget about the lost boy in the cornfield.

But a stronger part of her told her to go. And so, she opened the car door.


	4. Search and Rescue

The blizzard was horrifyingly cold; cornstalks were flying away, the ground was icing, and the wind starting to cause Stella’s skin to bruise.

She fought bravely, trudging through the deep snow with her arms wrapped around the bottom half of her face. Snow was violently zooming past her, her hair was flying back, and everything from her ankles down were numb. She could barely see in front of her; if she had stuck her hand out in front of her face, she wouldn’t be able to see it. 

“Tommy!” Stella bellowed, but her voice was lost in the wind. Stella suddenly spotted a lump up ahead that was buried under a huge, thick blanket of snow. 

It was shaped like a human being, and as Stella grew closer, she could see what looked like a head under the snow. “Tommy!?” Stella cried out, trudging faster through the snow and praying to god that the lump wasn’t Tommy’s corpse. She approached the anomaly and shoved her hands under the snow, furiously digging as the storm raged on. “Tommy!” She cried, working fast and hard to get the snow away.

Stella took a deep, cold breath and felt around for the body; she finally managed to grab a hold of what her hands could recognize as hair. “Tommy!” She cried, grabbing a bundle of the hair, and violently pulling it out of the snow! “I got you!” She called! She held the head above the snow and cleared away the snow out of her eyes as she leaned down to get a good look at the face.

It was Harold the Scarecrow. His body had been covered by the snowfall. 

His post was missing – the storm must have taken it away. “No.” Stella said to herself. “No, no, no!” She cried, throwing down the scarecrow’s head in frustration. She clenched her hands into fists, and punched the ground as hard as she could. She had hoped so badly that she would be able to find Tommy by now and bring him back to the car where it was warm and safe.

But she hadn’t found Tommy; she didn’t even come close. He wasn’t here, and he wasn’t anywhere along the path. 

“TOMMY!” Stella hoarsely screamed out into the air! Cold assaulted her lungs, and she was met with no response. She stared into the distant horizon and was oblivious to the fatal storm around her as she collapsed onto her knees, defeated and stripped of her willpower. The wind violently forced her to fall sideways and into the snow, dousing her with pain. 

Her eyes fluttered as she stared up at the snowstorm, silently hoping that it would suddenly fade away. She could feel herself getting physically weaker; she could no longer feel the tips of her fingers, and her ears had lost all feeling. As she lay in the snow with grief, the distant part of her brain began to subconsciously speak to her: She had to get up and get back to the car. He wasn’t here, and if she stayed out here any longer, she was going to die. 

Her knees slightly buckled as she stood up. She reached out for something to hold onto, but her hands found nothing except the frozen air around her. She stumbled and caught herself on the ground with her wrists. “Agh!” She shouted as more pain shot up through her arms!

She pushed herself back up and found her balance. Now, all she had to do was get back to the car. It was a straight beeline down the path. She could make it. 

As Stella looked in the direction that Tommy had run, she glanced at the ground. Suddenly, she saw something that made her heart jump out of her chest: Tommy’s bat was lying in the snow, being buried alive by the storm.

Stella threw herself down toward the weapon; she grabbed the bat by the head, and pulled it out of the snow. It was freezing to the touch, but she didn’t care. She brushed snow away from the surface, and examined the bat; the handle was starting to ice over, and there was a couple of chips in it, but it was still in good shape. Near the head of the bat, there was a scribbled line that read:

LM TM

Stella smiled. He was nearby, he had to be. Maybe Tommy had fled into the cornfield itself; he might not have stayed on the path. Stella had hope again.

“HONK!” 

A car horn blared its horn from afar. Somebody was repeatedly beating on the horn, obviously signaling for Stella to return to the vehicle safely: Chuck and Auggie must be calling her back. Stella looked further into the cornstalks and noticed that a few of them were bent out of shape: somebody had ran through them. 

“HONK! HONK! HOOOOONK!”

Stella glanced back toward the farmhouse and thought about what she was going to do next. She had two choices:

She could save her own life and return to the car, where she would be driven to safety, potentially leaving Tommy out here to die…  
Or,  
She could risk her life and explore the deeper ends of the cornfield, and hold onto the hope of finding him.

No matter what she would choose, she knew that she wouldn’t be able to do both. The storm was too hazardous for her to survive any more than 10 minutes out here, so she had to be dedicated. She spent a couple of moments contemplating her decision, but it didn’t take long for her to make up her mind. 

She gripped the bat firmly in her hand, and began to maneuver into the cornstalks, leaving safety behind. 

Stella spent about two minutes fighting her way through the cornstalks, pushing them aside with Tommy’s bat as she scanned for any sign of him. She hadn’t found anything yet, but the cornstalks were obviously disturbed.

“Tommy!” Stella called, hoping for an answer. 

As she pushed through the cornstalks, the arm that held the bat was beginning to waver, and her legs were starting to wobble unwillingly from beneath her. She was starting to shut down, and Stella knew that it was close to being over for her. If she collapsed here, nobody would be able to find her. She would end up just like Harold the Scarecrow – frozen, buried, and forgotten until the end of time. 

As her head swayed downward, her eyes caught something that was in the distance. It was a shadow, and it was lying in the snow a considerable distance away. 

“Tom…” Stella moaned, pushing herself to get to the mysterious figure. She used the bat to push aside the cornstalks away from her path and focused on the figure on the ground. As she grew close enough for it to be recognizable, the blood inside of her body ran completely cold, and she was shocked to her core.

It was a body, wearing a mustard & forest green varsity jacket. Tommy Milner.

He lay face up in the snow, and his eyes were closed. His hair was frosted at the tips, and his jacket was coated in wet snow. His skin was pale, his veins were popping out of his head, and his left arm seemed to be bleeding. 

“Oh my god.” Stella gulped, slowly struggling to fight through the cold and to get to Tommy’s body. She fell onto her knees and glanced over Tommy’s face. It was still, cold, and emotionless. He was either unconscious, or dead. Stella hoped it was the latter. 

There was no sign of the other jocks. 

“Please, please…wake up.” Stella said quietly, putting her hand on Tommy’s cheek. She ran her hand down his face and rested it on the side of his neck, pressing firmly in order to feel for a pulse. The snowy storm was distracting her from focusing on him; she gently closed her eyes and did her best to block out all the outside disturbances from her mind. She pressed harder into his neck,  
and she found a weak pulse. 

“Oh!” Stella weakly chuckled! She took her hand away from Tommy’s neck and put it back on his face. “Tommy, wake up! Please wake up!” She pleaded!

Tommy didn’t respond. He was as still as a corpse, seemingly unconscious. “We have to get to the car!” Stella moaned.

Dissatisfied, she slid her hand underneath his left shoulder. She tried to hoist him up, but she collapsed almost as soon as she had tried to lift him. She grunted defiantly and slid her arm back under his shoulder. She lifted upwards with all of strength and used her free arm to help lift him off the ground. 

As she held Tommy at waist level, she glanced back into the cornstalks, and came to a horrifying realization. She had lost her sense of direction – the cornstalks were falling over now – and she had no idea how to get back to the main path! She was as lost in the cornfield as Tommy had been.

“Oh god.” Stella mumbled. “Please, please, God…please, get us out of here…” she mumbled repeatedly, spinning around to look for an exit.

Then, almost as soon as she had said that, her eyes caught glimpse of a building far ahead. It looked like it was outside of the cornfield, which was perfect: that’s where Stella wanted to go.

With this in mind, Stella pushed her glasses further up her nose, and held Tommy against her side as she began to move through the corn stalks. A terrible thought plagued her mind: she was leaving her friends behind. Luckily for them, they would be safe in the car. She and Tommy was not safe out here, and she was determined to save him, no matter what the cost.

She held the bat on the edges of her hands and was using her arms to drag Tommy’s body along. Stella focused her attention on what was ahead of her, and although her determination was unmatched, her lively energy was almost gone; the storm was trying to kill her. Stella’s body was ready to give out, but fortunately for her, she preferred to rely on her brain over her brawn. 

From what Stella could see, she was almost out of the cornfield. The corn stalks were coming to an end, and most of them were just stems now. As she pushed her way past the final few cornstalks, she emerged from the field, and stepped out into an open patch of snow. 

In the near distance, Stella could see the shelter more easily: it was a large barn. That was good enough for her. 

She grabbed a better hold of Tommy’s shoulders, and began to drag him out of the cornfield, but a spasm in her arms suddenly kicked in, and she dropped him immediately. She fell backwards due to the imbalance of weight and was plagued by excruciating pain in her arms! “Ow! Ow, ow!” She cried out!

As she lay in the cold and thick snow, she was finally aware of the damage that the storm had done to her body now. She couldn’t feel her legs anymore, and the tips of her fingers were starting to bruise black. She glanced at them in horror, and her breath was caught inside of her throat. She could feel the piercing cold inside of her lungs. Every breath she took caused brutal pain to her chest, and the air that emerged from her mouth was becoming near solid. She wouldn’t last much longer out here. 

She was truly dying. 

Stella, despite her pained lungs, took the deepest breath she has possibly every taken in her life, and struggled to stand. She placed her hand on her trembling knee and pushed upward with all of her   
might. “Fuck!” She hissed! “Fuck!”

She used both of her hands to push upward, finally giving her leverage enough to stand. 

Her head swam immediately, and nausea took over her body. She toppled over toward the right, but manage to catch herself by planting her foot firmly in the snow. “No.” She mumbled. “No, no, no, don’t you dare.” 

As she got closer, she desperately searched for an entrance to the barn, and found it: a pair of large doors that were closed off. The snowstorm had begun to bury the entrance several inches below the surface.

Stella hurried, and pushed her body to its limit as she desperately attempted a light jogger’s pace. 

Within moment she had crashed into the stable doors, and temporarily dropped Tommy’s body out of her arms. Her eyesight was failing her; her peripheral vision was starting to darken, and her central vision was beginning to blur. “Come on…come on.” Stella whispered. She willed herself to reach for the handle of the stable doors, and hoped that they were unlocked. The handle burned at the touch, and 

Stella grimaced as she pushed downward! 

Initially, nothing happened as she pushed downward on the handle. However, she placed her second hand on the handle, and used her arms for good measure! The handle eventually snapped downward, and the stable doors were blown open by the oncoming winds! Stella immediately stumbled inside of the barn, inadvertently letting the snowstorm flow into the barn.

“God.” Stella mumbled. She turned around, and glanced at the entrance to the barn; Tommy was laying just outside of the doors, still being assaulted by the snowstorm. With a small breath, she held her arms out in front of her face as she powered through the winds, desperate to get to Tommy’s body. 

She reached down and grabbed Tommy’s right arm before dragging the rest of his body through the stable doors and bringing it to a rest on the wooden floor. 

“Fine, fine.” Stella said to herself, turning back to face the doors. The grabbed one that had swung into the barn, and winced in pain as she pushed it against the oncoming winds! The door did not close easily – Stella had to fight to keep it closed as she reached across the large doorway, and grabbed a hold of the other door which had been blown open. With her combined strength, she closed the second door as well. Once both doors were closed, she grabbed the large lock-bar that was built into the wall, and slid it across both of the stable doors. They were now officially closed, and locked up. 

Stella sighed heavily, and painfully. Her mission was over: Tommy was safe, and most importantly, so was she. They were both free from the snowstorm outside, and best of all, her friends were probably safe as well.

She looked down at Tommy’s body, and giggled deliriously at the fact that she had just went through hell and beyond to save his life. Tommy Milner; the devil of Mill Valley High, was safe because of Stella Nichols; the timid Angel. 

“You pathetic, disgusting miracle.” Stella said. Then, her eyes closed and everything went black.


	5. Taking Refuge

The storm had continued to brew over Mill Valley for several hours. Since then, the sun had set, plunging Mill Valley into darkness. The streets were buried under pounds of snow, and power lines were knocked over, and torn apart. Everybody in town was huddled up inside of their homes, some of them with only water heaters to keep them warm, while others were happily brooding around candles, fireplaces, and even small bonfires that were made out of desperation. Stores in the center of town were cramped with survivors from the streets, which meant that they were out of business for the night.  
In the middle of rural Mill Valley, a Catalina roamed slowly through the snowy street. Its headlights were the only thing keeping the streets lit up, and the snowstorm was making it very difficult for the driver to see. Inside of the car were two teenagers who were looking for shelter. 

“Would you make them wipe faster!?” Chuck, the passenger, exclaimed!

“They can’t GO any faster, that’s the fastest they’ll go!” Auggie, the driver, replied. The windshield wipers were brushing away the snowfall from the windows, but it wasn’t doing enough work. Auggie could barely see the road ahead, and had a very little idea on where he was going. “And you’re not the one driving, so-“

“Then do something else! You have to be able to see in order to drive!” 

“Yeah, thanks for the update.” Auggie replied sarcastically. 

“I can’t believe you don’t remember the way back home.” 

“I thought I did, Chuck. I REALLY did.” Auggie huffed. “It’s not like you know the way any better than I do.”

“If I was driving, we’d be downing hot cocoa and looking at naked chicks right now. But instead I’m stuck in a cold metal tin can with a guy who thinks that Einstein is a hero.” Chuck groaned, running a hand through his curly hair.

“…he is.” Auggie quietly said.

“Whatever, okay? Can we just find somewhere to hide before the car dies again?” Chuck asked. 

“What, you think I’m sitting here, twiddling my thumbs?” Auggie replied sarcastically. 

“That’s exactly what you’ve been doing!” Chuck argues! “Why couldn’t we have just picked a house and asked the people inside to hunker down!?” 

“Think about it, Chuck! People love to loot during things like this; and looters get shot when they start coming up to houses.” 

“But we’re not looters! We’re two dumbasses who picked a fight with an even bigger dumbass!” 

“The people in those houses don’t know that!” Auggie replied. “We could be trying to steal their food for all they know, so we’re not going to bother them. We can survive on our own.”

“Yeah, we’re doing great.” Chuck huffed, leaning his elbow on the car door and glooming out of the window. “We’re freezing, lost, and we left Stella to become a snowwoman. Weeeee.” 

“Okay, first of all.” Auggie started, raising a finger. “Stella knew what she was doing. And she’s…she’s awesome. She knows how to be by herself. So, there’s no freaking way that we left her to…ahem, become a snowwoman. Anyway…we ARE doing great. We have a working car, with working heaters, and we’re not starving.” 

“Speak for yourself.” Chuck said, wincing as he shifted in his seat. “I wish I had a McDonalds Chicken Club right now. And a Grape Soda.”

“Well, If you think about it-“

“And stop telling me to think about stuff!” Chuck whined. “I swear to god, you’re gonna make me get out of the car just to get away from you.”

“Well, don’t let me stop you.” Auggie smirked. “Chuck, I was kidding! Let go of the door.” 

Chuck brought his hand away from the door handle, and lightly banged his head on the window. “Are we there yet?” 

“No.”

“Are we there yet?”

“No.”

“Are we there yet?”

“Chuck.”

“Are we there yet?”

“No.”

“Are we there yet?”

“I don’t even know where ‘there’ is!”

“Are we there yet?”

“No.”

“Are we there yet?”

“I’m going to kick you in the ear.”

“Are we there yet?” 

“No.”

“Are we there yet?”

“Stop it.”

“Are we there yet?”

“Yes!”

“Really!?”

“No!” 

Chuck groaned loudly, and threw his hands down into his lap. “You’re an asshole.” 

“’I’m educated.’” Auggie mocked. Chuck gave him a side-eyed glance, and huffed dramatically. “I don’t sound like that.”

“Chuck.” Auggie said, peering ahead.

“I sound manlier than you. If you wanna impersonate me, you’ve gotta have a little more bass-“

“Chuck, shut up! Look!”

“What!?” Chuck asked, peering ahead. 

Auggie stopped the vehicle and sat back in his seat, observing the view in front of the car. He was in shock and disbelief, as if he had seen the ghost of a relative. “Holy shit.” He said. “Is that who I think It is?” 

Chuck half smirked as he looked ahead; although his mouth was mischievously happy, the rest of him was worried. “I think so.” 

“What should we do?” Auggie asked, looking over at Chuck. 

“Run ‘em over?” Chuck replies, shrugging his shoulders. “I mean, that’s what I would do.” 

“No surprise there.” Auggie said, looking back at the view in front of the car. “Thankfully, I’m not you.” 

Chuck looked back at Auggie, and Auggie looked back at Chuck. They started to read each other’s expressions; Auggie’s was smug and confident, while Chuck’s was scared and desperate. “No.” He said.

“Chuck-“

“No!” Chuck interrupted. “Not a chance in hell, Auggie.” 

Auggie hugged in his seat, and looked back ahead. He let his hands rest on the top of the steering wheel, and bit his bottom lip. “We have to, Chuck.” 

“Says who?” Chuck asked. “God? We are not good Samaritans, and after what they did to us!?”

“We’re not leaving them to die, Chuck! Think about what you’re saying.” 

“Auggie, Auggie…Auggie…” Chuck said quietly, leaning closer to the other boy and putting two fingers on either side of his own lips. “Read my lips…N-O.” Chuck mouthed. “We’re not doing this, and that’s final!”  
_____________________________________________________________________  
Corman’s Hardware was not a popular store, partly due to the fact that, unlike the other shops, it was not located in the center of town. There was only one family member keeping the family business going: Jaime Corman. Instead of selling out to the Mayor’s price of a Downtown lot, Jaime bought the building off of the interstate that ran out of Pennsylvania. He preferred gorgeous scenery over a profit any day. 

Inside of Corman’s Hardware were a handful of survivors that were hiding out from the storm. They had boarded up the windows with wooden planks to protect the store from damage, and although tensions were not high, they were desperate for luxury. 

As the group pondered on where to find a way to keep themselves warm, they heard the roar of a vehicle outside of the store. 

“Hey.” A man in a brown bowling hat hissed. “Somebody’s in the streets!” 

“We should see if they want to come inside.” An elderly woman with short, white curls proclaimed. 

“We’ve already boarded up the doors.” A tall, athletic African American man proclaimed. 

“That doesn’t mean we can’t take them down.” The bowling hat man said. 

“I agree.” The woman said. “There are people out there that need help.” 

A series of loud knocks on the front doors of the shop shocked the three survivors, interrupting their debate. “Hello!?” A loud, shrill voice called out from the outside. “Is anyone in there!?” 

The African man eyed the other two survivors, and slowly shook his head. “No…”

“It’s a kid, for heaven’s sake!” The woman shrilled! 

“No!” The African American man exclaimed. He grabbed her arm, and stopped her from moving any closer toward the front door. “If we open that door, it could cause more damage, and the cold is going to   
be in here. We’ll freeze, too!”

“Let go of me.” The woman said through gritting teeth. The African American man did so immediately. 

The voice from outside of the doors spoke again: “We need help! We’re not looters or rapists or criminals!” 

Ignoring the unusual statement, the woman hurried to the front doors and pulled off the wooden planks with the help of the man in the Bowling Hat. The two survivors opened the door to the shop, allowing 4 teenagers to come barreling through together. They were coated in fresh snow, and they were bloated with cold-induced rashes; it was Chuck, Auggie, and Tommy’s jocks.

“Oh my word!” The woman expressed! “See if you can find any blankets in the storage, would ya!?” she commanded! The African American man nodded quickly, and retreated to the back of the store to get   
to the blankets. 

“T-thank you.” Auggie said. “Thank you.”

“Oh, of course!” The woman said, kneeling down and brushing the snow away from their hair. 

“You alright, son?” The bowl hat man asked, putting a gentle hand on one of their shoulders.

“Barely.” Chuck said. “We…we were almost done for out there.”

“Oh, well it’s a good thing I opened the door, then.” The woman grinned. All four teenagers nodded. 

“Mill Valley High?” She asked. “Are you students from up there?”

“Yeah…” Chuck said. “They just…they just have the cool jackets. Not me.” 

“Or me.” Auggie added. 

“Yes.” The woman said. She glanced at the other two boys, who were wearing Forest Green & Mustard colored varsity jackets, and were holding each other tightly. “They’re cool alright.” She chuckled.

The African man returned, carrying various colored blankets that were used to clothe the freezing teenage boys. “Here ya go.” He said. They took them without hesitation, shaking off leftover snow and frost in favor of the warm cotton. 

“Thanks, s-stranger.” Chuck said. 

“Say, what are your names?” The woman asked, putting her hand against the boy’s forehead. 

“I’m…Charles…” Chuck said. “This is August.” He said, introducing his tall friend. 

“Alfred” One jock said. “Kyle.” The other jock said.

“Well…I’m Rose.” The woman said. “And I’ll be happy to get you guys anything you need. Just ask.” She said motherly, pinching the younger boys’ cheeks. 

“Ow! Okay!” Chuck said, annoyed. “Jeez, does every mom have to do that?”

“I’m afraid so.” Rose smiled. Her smile faded when she looked back up at the African man. “You wanna get these boys some fresh water?” 

The man nodded, and was off to fetch the water. 

The group had moved over toward the back of the store, where a few lawn chairs were propped open. The other men had introduced themselves; Frederick, and Lamar. They had re-applied the wooden planks onto the front entrance while the others were settling down, and had since then re-joined the group in the back of the shop. 

“Thanks for the water.” Chuck mumbled as he sipped on his warm, fresh beverage. Aside from the freshness, it was toasty warm. Auggie, Kyle and Alfred were content with their own cups, still under their blankets. 

Sitting across from them, the shop survivors had fixed their own beverages.

“Don’t mention it.” Frederick commented.

“Heavens, does that hurt too bad?” Rose asked. The four boys noticed the red bruises on their arms and hands, and shook their heads. “Just a little.” Chuck said. “It’s not so bad.” 

“I don’t know about that, I-I mean, the cold can-“ Rose started. 

“Calm down.” Frederick said. “That ain’t nothin. They didn’t come close to catchin’ no frostbite, I’ll tell you that much.” 

Rose nodded, and relaxed her muscles as she drank her cup of warm water.

“So it’s just you guys in here?” Chuck asked. 

“Yes sir.” Lamar said. 

“Did everyone else die?” Chuck asked, earning a slight slap to the chest from Auggie.

“No, no.” Lamar chuckled. “We were just the only shoppers in here, when, you know.” He said. “The storm started.”

“Ah.” Chuck said, awkwardly taking another sip of his warm water.

“How do you guys have fresh water?” Auggie asked. 

“You act like this storm has been brewing on for days, now.” Rose playfully teased. “We gathered as much as we could out of the tap system as soon as the wind started.” She smiled. 

Auggie smiled awkwardly. “That explains how you kept it from going cold in the pipes.” 

“I take it you’re the smart one?” Frederick asked with a chuckle.

“Well, I-I dunno about- yes. Yeah.” Auggie agreed, grinning as he sipped his water. The shop survivors laughed. “Did anybody else try to get into the store?” Auggie asked.

“You would think they would!” Rose exclaimed! “But I guess they were too stubborn to get out of their damn cars. They won’t make it two miles before the engines freeze over, I bet you that.” 

“We’ve had some luck.” Auggie said. 

“How about the quiet ones?” Frederick asked, glancing between Alfred and Kyle. “You two alright?” He asked. They both nodded solemnly, continuing to keep to themselves. 

“Enough about us.” Rose said. “What happened to you boys? Do your parents know that you’re okay? Did you come from home?” 

Chuck and Auggie both shook their heads, and placed their cups of water on a small coffee table in front of their seats. “We don’t know if they’re okay, and…they probably think we’re at Stella’s.” Chuck said. 

“Stella? Who’s Stella?” Rose asked. 

“Oh, she’s our friend.” Auggie said. Chuck sniggered: “You wish she was your girlfriend.” 

“No I don’t.” Auggie said defensively. “Stella isn’t even my type.” 

“Oh, that’s right! You’re into my sister, not Stella.” Chuck said. 

“Shut up!” Auggie said.

“You shut up!” Chuckie argued.

“Boys!” Lamar boomed. “You wanna get back on track?” 

“Sorry.” Auggie and Chuck said together. 

“Um…” Auggie started. “We were hanging out together. Stella, Tommy…all of us.” He said, looking over at Kyle and Alfred with raised eyebrows. They nodded along in agreement. “And then…the wind started to pick up, and the snow started flying toward us.” He said. 

“You boys were caught in it?” Lamar asked.

“Uh huh.” Chuck answered. “Real grim stuff.” 

Auggie rolled his eyes, and continued. “So, after that, we fought back to the car, together. And…Tommy got lost. Stella went to look for him, and she didn’t come back...” Auggie said, lowering his head and looking down at the ground in front of his feet. “We had to go.” Chuck said. “It was…freezing in the car, so we just…drove…for what seemed like days.” He said. 

“Well…It’s only been a few hours, son.” Frederick said. 

“Really?” Chuck asked, glancing eagerly at his wrist. “I gotta get a new watch.” 

“Anyway.” Auggie said, clearing his throat. “We, uh, we just kept driving. It got dark, and I couldn’t really see, so I just drove really slowly. You know, because of black ice and such. Then we found the interstate. We kept driving on the road until we found your store. I’m surprised, because it’s the first one we came across since this all started.”

“I’m not surprised. It’s like a damn maze out there.” Lamar said, sipping his water. 

“I agree.” Rose said, holding onto Auggie’s hand. “It must have been so hard for you keep these kids safe. Don’t you worry about your friend…I’m sure she’s fine. And you had these three, plus yourself to worry about!” She reassured. Auggie bit his lip, and looked up from the ground to meet Rose’s face. She smiled at him, and he smiled back. “You’ll see her again!” She said, patting him on the hand. 

“I hope so. I would hate to be a murderer.” Chuck said, eyeing his legs. 

“Let’s hope you’re not.” Frederick said with a beaming, cheerful smile. “I’m surprised that your car seemed to make it out there for that long…no breakdowns, no nothing?” 

Chuck and Auggie looked at each other with knowing expressions, and shared small grins of satisfaction. “Well…it’s kind of working.” Auggie said. “I mean, it WAS. I don’t know about now, but it was hard work getting it started. Then, it just kind of kept going until we got here. We’re kind of low on gas as it is, so we couldn’t really get it going anywhere else anyway.” 

“Wow. I’m sorry to hear that.” Rose said. “At least you’ll be in good company with us.”

“You think we’ll be in here for that long?” Chuck asked. “I mean, not that you guys aren’t cool! But…you know, it’d be cool to be back home.” 

“Oh, don’t worry about it, kid.” Lamar said. “Storms like this don’t usually last for more than a few hours or so. So you and your friends will be back home soon.”

Chuck nodded in understanding, and finished up his cup of water. 

“So, your car’s still in working order, huh?” Frederick asked. “What kind is it?”

“It’s a Pontiac Catalina.” Chuck said with a smug grin. “I, uh…bought it last year. Runs great. Loud, too.” 

“Oh, please.” Auggie scoffed. “You can’t even afford a decent bike.” 

“Dude!” Chuck said, looking sideways at Auggie and throwing his eyes toward the shop survivors. “Stay, cool!” 

Auggie bit his lips, and nonchalantly shook his head before nodding along in agreement with Chuck. “Yeah. He bought it.” 

“Oh, really?” Rose asked. 

“In your dreams, Steinburg. It’s not your car.” Kyle finally said, eyes darting at the younger boy. “It’s Milner’s.” 

“Fine, whatever.” Chuck scoffed, leaning on his elbow and pouting at the floor. “Pretty boy got the car.” 

“And the cool jacket.” Alfred said, smirking and hi-fiving his friend, Kyle. 

“Eat turd, shitburg.” Chuck mumbled. 

Rose’s eyes lit up, and she rose a trembling hand over her agape mouth. “Milner…do you mean to say that the Milner’s boy is who you were with? The farmhand family out near Georgeton!?”   
Chuck and Auggie nodded, while Kyle and Alfred remained silent, arms crossed across their chests. “Do you know them?” Chuck asked with a raised eyebrow. “You seem too nice to know anybody as mean as the Milner’s.”

“Oh, give them credit, Chalk!” She exclaimed! “I’ve known the Milner’s since we were kids…oh, how I hope they’re alright…” 

Chuck leaned over to Auggie, and whispered quietly: “Did she just call me Chalk?”

Auggie nodded, and resumed his talk with Rose. “We were actually thinking about getting back to the farm, where they were last seen. Stella and Tommy, I mean…and, finding them. I mean, we’re low on gas, but I think we can make it there.” 

“Well, count me in!” Rose said, excitedly! “I’ll put my life on the line before I let the Milner’s son get killed in a freak storm!” 

“Hold on, now.” Frederick started. He was ignored.

Chuck spoke up. “Could you help us look for our friend too?”

“Well, I don’t see why not.” Rose said. “It sounds like she needs as much help as Milner does.”

“Excuse me!?” Frederick started again, but he was ignored. 

“Could you spare any gasoline for the car?” Chuck asked.

“That’s a little rude to ask for resources. We just met these people, Chuck.” Auggie said.

“Oh, pish posh!” Rose stated, waving her hand in front of her face. “I’d be glad to scrounge up some fuel for- “

“EXCUSE ME!” Frederick hollered! This garnered everybody’s attention. “You guys want to leave, and go out into this storm? No. You’re better off with sticking around here until is dissipates. You’re already hurt enough as it is. Any colder, and you’ll end up losing your fingers.” 

Chuck held a few of his fingers in his free hand, and slightly panicked at the thought. “But I need my fingers. How am I supposed to eat without fingers!?” 

“You don’t wanna know.” Frederick chuckled. 

“So, we’re just supposed to sit here, until the storm lets up?” Chuck asked. “What about our friends?” 

“Look, little man.” Lamar started. “I know how you feel. I got family in town, and I’m worried sick about them too. All we can do is hope; we don’t get much choice.” He said. Chuck pondered on this information, and knew that deep down, Lamar was right. 

“Tell you what.” Rose said, smiling and taking Chuck’s hand this time. “As soon as the wind dies down a little bit, we’ll hop in your Catalina, and go get your friends. I’ll make sure you get there in one piece.” She said happily. Chuck smiled back at her, and nodded in agreement. “As soon as the wind dies down.” Chuck repeated.

“As soon as.” Rose said. “But if we’re going to use your car, we’re going to need Gasoline. Will you two boys come help a poor old woman scrounge through the back?” She asked, glancing at Frederick and Lamar. 

“Sure, ma’am.” Frederick said, tipping the brim of his cap forward and helping Rose up to her feet.

“Oh, we can help you.” Auggie suggested, but he let out a hoarse cough soon afterwards. Chuck aggressively patted him on the back, hoping to clear his throat out. “You boys need to rest. The good lord knows you need it.” Rose said. “Come on.” She said to the men, leading the way into the back of the store. 

Frederick and Lamar followed Rose into the back of the store, leaving the boys along in the main isle. For a few moments, it was awkwardly silent between all of them. Then, out of the silence, someone spoke: “Thanks for picking us up, nerd.” Alfred said. Kyle nodded alongside him.

Auggie half smiled. “Luckily for you guys, I’m not one for leaving people to die out in the cold.” 

Alfred and Kyle were taken aback by that statement, and Kyle kept his head held up high. “I mean, you left Stella behind. So that’s not really true.” 

“And you left Tommy behind in the cornfield.” Chuck shot back, glancing at the boys. “Can we not fight, please? Let’s just agree that we all fucked up, and that we need to fix this before our friends die out there.” 

Kyle shrugged his shoulders, and leaned back into his lawn chair. “Whatever. So why’d you lie to the old lady?” 

“About?” Auggie asked. 

“About what happened before the storm.” Kyle said.

Auggie paused for a moment, and sarcastically smiled at the shorter jock. “Did you want me to tell them that you were assaulting my friend’s testicles, and were holding me down in the snow like an animal?” 

“Pfft.” Kyle scoffed. “I don’t care what you tell them.” 

“Fine.” Auggie said, turning around in his seat, and getting face to face with Kyle. “Then you’ll just have to spend the night outside. I don’t think she’d take too kindly to be housing bullies in here.”

Kyle shifted uncomfortably in his seat, and tightened his arms across his chest. He looked away from Auggie, and glanced at the isles of tools alongside him. “Whatever.”  
Auggie grinned, knowing he had won the argument – as always – and turned back around in his chair. He took a deep breath, and sat back in his seat. For the first time this evening, he was starting to relax. 

“Oh!” Chuck exclaimed! He dug into his pockets and yanked out a walkie talkie, and both his and Auggie’s eyes lit up with hope. “I completely forgot about this!” 

“You big doof, turn it on!” Auggie said happily. “Try to contact Stella.”

“Who do you think I’m gonna contact, Marylyn Monroe!?” Chuck asked sarcastically. “Knowing you, probably.” Auggie replied. Alfred and Kyle smirked.

“Shut up.” Chuck said, flipping on his walkie talkie and adjusting the signal dial. Static, Electrical Whooshing, and beeps were constantly heard coming from the device, but there were no voices to be heard.   
Then, when Chuck had found Channel 5, he brought the device up to his mouth. “Stella, Stella!? Come in, Stella!” He called!

The device released static – no voice came through. 

“Come in, The Cheep! Come in, The Cheep!” Chuck said! Auggie shook his head and rose his arms in question, and Chuck shrugged his shoulders with a nervous expression. “Stella, are you there?” He asked.

There was no answer, no matter the wait. Chuck tried, again and again, to contact Stella. The only response was hideous static, and occasional beeping. 

“The storm’s probably interfering with the range of the thing. I hope she’s okay.” Auggie said. 

“Are you kidding?” Chuck said. “She’s the strongest out of all of us. I guarantee you, she found Milner, and she’s sitting in his house with a warm cup of chocolate in her hands, while Milner’s upstairs pouting because he got saved by a girl.”

Auggie laughed, and thought about where Stella might have ended up. “Yeah, I bet she’s doing better than we are right now.”


	6. Stuck In The Barn

“Damn it.”

A loud smash.

Stella slowly opened her eyes, and for a moment, she had forgotten where she was. The last thing she remembered was being in her bedroom, writing about “The Whispering Room” on her typewriter. Now, as she began to get a good look at what was in front of her, her memories began to come back to her.

Snow – Cold – Pain – Car – House – Barn – Tommy – Tommy – Tommy. 

“Come on!” 

A loud banging.

Stella’s heart jumped when she heard the voice, and the noise. She finally realized that she was lying on her side when the pain suddenly rushed into her body, and she groaned aloud as her fingertips burst with agony. She tried to move them, but they were very slow. They could barely curl up. She slowly turned her head around, and looked up at a distant figure that was facing away from her; toward the doors of the barn. It was standing in the dark, but she knew who it was. 

“Stupid…” The figure, Tommy Milner, said. 

“W…wha…” Stella mumbled. Her voice cracked, and she felt an unnatural urge to vomit. 

“…oh, great.” Tommy said with a slurred voice.

Stella moved her head to see him more clearly. “T-Tommy?” She said. 

“Speak up.” Tommy said, slapping his bat into the floor of the barn. “Wh…where are we?” Stella breathed. Her chest ached with every word she spoke, and her throat felt like ice. “I dunno.” Tommy replied. 

Before Stella could reply, he smashed his bat against the barn doors, obviously frustrated and trying to get them open. “Come ON!” He gruffed.

“W-what are y-y-you do-doing?” Stella stuttered. 

“What does it look like?” Tommy muttered, slamming the end of his bat into the inner lock of the barn doors. “Come on, you plaster hunk of crap.” He said to himself.

Stella slowly looked around the rest of the barn, but she couldn’t see anything past the wooden floorboards beneath her. It was too dark. “D-don’t…” Stella started to say. 

“Don’t what?” Tommy asked without looking back.

“Don’t go…outs-side.” Stella stuttered. 

“I’m not staying with you.” Tommy replied. He continued to push against the inner lock of the door, but it didn’t look like he was getting anywhere. 

“T-Tommy.” Stella mumbled. “I k-know how b-b-bad the s-storm is. I s-saved your lif-fe.”

Tommy laughed, and let out a sigh. “Either be quiet, or you can be the one that leaves. Either one is fine with me.” Tommy said. Stella silently grumbled and looked up at the ceiling, trying to process what was happening. She had risked everything to save Tommy, and he was about to abandon her in return.

“Ugh!” Tommy groaned. He continued slamming his bat into the base of the door, hoping that he would be able to bust through the wood. “DAMN IT! DAMN IT, DAMN IT, DAMN IT!”

Stella flinched as Tommy screamed, and after a few moments of kicking at the doors, Tommy pouted away from them. He drug his bat behind him as he made his way to the back of the barn, probably to look for another way out. With Tommy gone from the doors, Stella was left alone with her thoughts. She focused on her own body; it was numb, cold to the bone, and uncontrollably trembling. She could hear the wind howling from beyond the walls, and she could only imagine how much snow had accumulated since she had passed out. The storm was still brewing; that wasn’t a very good sign. 

Stella wondered if her friends, Chuck and Auggie, were still waiting for her in Tommy’s car. She even began to think about the worst-case scenario; they had abandoned the car in search of Stella, and had collapsed in the cold, unable to find shelter like Stella had. She shook the thought out of her head and hoped that they had driven away in the car, and were finding some help to bring back for both herself and Tommy. 

With this comforting thought in mind, Stella rested her eyes as her involuntary roommate roamed around the back of the barn. Then, she was asleep again. 

When Stella opened her eyes again, she could see that there was a dimly lit light nearby. It was quiet, orange, and warm. She looked through her glasses – which were covered in water – and could faintly make out a fire had been made. Tommy must have started one while she was unconscious.

The first thing that she noticed was that she was colder than she had been when she had first met the fire. The second thing that she noticed was that Tommy was not near the fire. Stella slowly pushed herself into a sitting position, and winced as she turned around to face the front of the barn. It was pitch dark.

“Tommy?” She croaked into the dark. There was no sign of life in the barn, not even the shuffling of shoes, or a wooden bat slapping into the floor. Did Tommy leave? If he had, Stella’s actions would have been done in vain. He couldn’t have left her. He wouldn’t have. 

“Tommy…” Stella said. “…are you there?” She finished, awaiting an answer.

The barn was silent, except for the roaring winds outside. “Tommy!” Stella nearly yelled. Her throat flashed with pain, but she didn’t care.

Tommy didn’t respond. 

“Damn it.” Stella mumbled. Without Tommy in the barn with her, she had to fend for herself. She turned back toward the dim fire, and looked around the small embers that were at the bottom of the fire. 

The fire was about to die. With determination, Stella wobbly pushed herself onto her feet, and prayed that her knees would support the weight of her damaged body. Fortunately, her knees were still in tip top shape. “Thank you.” She said to her knees. 

She held the match out in front of her; the light was barely enough for her to see her own hand, but it was better than nothing. She pushed her glasses up to the rim of her nose, and set out to find some spare wood that might be in the barn. 

She started with the side of the barn that had the stable doors built into the walls. They shook slightly with the rush of the wind outside, and the silver lock looked like it was developing ice onto it. Stella held match out toward the floor, looking for any sign of wood planks, wood blocks, or even a wooden toy car that she could throw into the fire. She found nothing at the bottom of the stable doors, and continued following along the walls so that she might find something. 

As she got closer to the corner of the barn, she heard a slight clanking noise that was coming from the direction she had been heading in. “Tommy?” Stella called out. 

There was no response. 

“Tommy, this isn’t funny!” She exclaimed! “I need your help…please.” 

There was no response.

Stella, shaking with fear, started to walk toward the side of the barn. 

A hand shot out of the darkness, and gripped Stella’s wrist. She winced in pain and tried to pull her arm out of the grip of the hand, but was unsuccessful. 

A few footsteps were heard ahead, and following the hand that had gripped her was the face of Tommy Milner. His eyes were bloodshot, his face was pale, and he was sweating bullets. His mouth hung open, and he stared at Stella with empty eyes, and a malevolent expression.

“Tommy!?” Stella gasped. “What are you doing!?” 

A pile of small, wood logs was suddenly shoved into Stella’s chest, and she was careful to catch them all with her free hand. She carried them carefully, nearly dropping them out of her reach. 

“Don’t you ever come back here.” Tommy groaned. 

Stella was suddenly thrust in the stomach with the head of a foreign object, and she found herself being pushed backward across the barn against her will! She crashed into the floor on her back, having been thrown nearly halfway across the barn. She felt her glasses fly off of her face, and although she could hear them landing, she couldn’t figure out where they had landed. Breathing heavily, Stella fumbled nervously with the pile of logs, looking back to where Tommy had been. She couldn’t see him at all – he was living in the dark.   
She gathered as much wood as she could carry in both of her arms, and stumbled over to the embers in the makeshift fire pit. The pit was a blur to her – due to losing her glasses – so she fumbled with the burning materials for a little while before she could be able to place them safely in the pit. She moved the wooden pile remains around in the pit, hoping to stir up enough flame for it to catch fire to the new wooden logs. 

The embers lit up, and Stella took the opportunity to place one log into the pit. The embers below the log suddenly seemed to disperse and de-illuminate; they were losing the heat. “No, no, no!” Stella hissed! “Please, light, please light!” 

As if by command, the bottom end of the wooden log began to burn, and Stella laughed in surprise and excitement. She would finally feel warm again. Soon enough, all of the wooden logs that Tommy had given Stella were being consumed by the fire. Stella held her hands over the flames, thankful for the heat in the freezing barn.

“Thank you.” Stella whispered into the darkness behind her. 

Tommy didn’t reply. 

Stella spent a majority of the night by the fire. She played with the flames by using small twigs leftover form the wooden pile, and even tried to radio Chuck and Auggie on her radio. “Guys?” She asked. “Can you hear me?” 

No matter how hard she is adjusting her signal, range, or channel, she couldn’t get a response from anybody. It must have been because of interference from the storm. 

She wondered about her dad. Was he going to be concerned about her disappearance? Was he going to call the police, and have them arrive at the residence, or perhaps to search the town for her when the storm had lightened up? Would she ever see her father again? Would she ever see her…?

Stella stopped her thoughts from going any further, and wiped away a single tear that had escaped from her eyes. She took deep breaths, keeping herself calm under the pressure of survival. 

She stayed awake for the next few hours, trapped with only her thoughts, but was tempted with the luxury of a deep slumber, which she took with no hesitation.


	7. Taking Turns

“Get up.” 

Stella was forced awake by a slow, heavy object that just so happened to be the head of Tommy’s bat. It dragged slowly across the side of her face, until Tommy lifted it off of her cheek. Stella looked up at 

Tommy; he was grinning. “The storm didn’t make you deaf, did it?” He asked. Stella shook her head in disgust, and laid her head back down. She needed more sleep. 

SMACK! 

Tommy’s bat crashed into the floor beside Stella’s head, and Tommy’s lip twitched as he picked it back up, and knelt downward in order to get closer to Stella. Stella looked at him, eyes wide open, and remained timid while he stared her down. “I said…get…up.” Tommy groaned. 

Stella’s fingers were still bruised black, and they were in worse shape now than ever before. She yelled out in pain, and collapsed onto her knees before she could make it onto her feet. Tommy was unmoving where he stood, and he stared down at Stella with a combination of annoyance, and confused concern. “What’s your problem?” He asked. 

“What do you think?” Stella asked. She exposed her darkened fingers, and winced as horrifying pain shot through them, and up her arm. “The storm didn’t make you blind, did it?” Stella mocked. Tommy smirked, and swung his bat around in his hand. “Whatever.” He started, walking toward the front of the barn, away from the fire pit. 

“I…I need a bandage, or something…” Stella said through pained breaths. 

“Sure, let me just go get my first aid kid out of my fire truck.” Tommy said, scoffing at Stella as he ushered Stella away from the fire. “It’s not that bad, Nicholls.” 

“I’m serious!” Stella shouted! “I could lose these fingers if I don’t keep them covered.” 

“Well then I hope you find something soon.” Tommy said, laughing with his tongue in between his teeth. 

Stella’s patience was running thin. She approached the stable doors and looked around the barn. She was confused when she couldn’t see well, but then she had remembered that her glasses were MIA. 

She held her breath, and listened for the howling of the wind. Her heart sank when she heard it. The storm hadn’t let up; it was still blowing through Mill Valley.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Stella said. She looked around the floor for her glasses, but she couldn’t see well without them. She squinted her eyes and glanced over the floorboards of the barn; she couldn’t distinguish anything on the floor. “Tommy?” 

Tommy ignored her. He was knelt over the fire pit, seemingly trying to get the fire started up again. 

“Tommy! Have you seen my glasses!?” Stella asked. 

“Yep.” Tommy groaned.

“And!?” Stella exclaimed!

“I think they’re in the corner, across from where I knocked you on your ass last night.” He chuckled.

Stella felt for the floor below her, and got down onto her hands and knees. She scoured the floorboards, feeling for anything that might resemble her glasses. She picked up plywood and tossed it aside. 

She picked up a rake, and she tossed it aside. She brushed dust away, and even fought a few spider webs, searching desperately for glasses that didn’t seem to be there. “I can’t find them!” She said nervously. 

“Look harder.” Tommy said. 

“I’m, looking!” Stella breathed! “They’re…they’re not here, and I can’t see without them!” 

“That sounds like a ‘you’ problem.” Tommy said emotionlessly.   
Stella whined painfully as she continued to search, spending the next 10 minutes on the floor, crying out in pain every time her fingers brushed up against a nail, or a jutting piece of floorboard. Out of the corner of his eye, Tommy watched her struggle. He turned his head back to the fire, trying to ignore the girl in the back of the barn. 

He couldn’t. 

Tommy sighed, obviously annoyed, and retreated away from the fire pit, opting to help Stella with her predicament instead. “Alright, alright, move.” He commanded. Stella carefully crawled away from the corner, stopping to sit in the center of the barn. At first, Tommy used his baseball bat to “sweep” the floor, not seemingly interested in finding her glasses for her. To Stella, it seemed like this was a chore that he was used to doing. “You clean the floors a lot?” Stella asked mischieviously.

Tommy ignored her. After a while of searching the floors, he seemed to have spotted something in particular on the floor, and kneeled down to get a better look. 

“What is it?” Stella asked. Without saying a word, Tommy scooped something off of the floor, and stood back up. He turned around, and threw it at Stella – fast. 

Stella barely caught them – her glasses – before she dropped them clumsily into her lap. Before she could thank Tommy for finding them, he’d already walked back to the fire pit. Stella cleaned the rims of her glasses, and slipped them back onto her face. They were freezing cold, and the sudden pressure gave her a massive migraine, but she kept them on her face. 

“What are we going to do?” Stella asked. 

Tommy had seemed to get the fire started again – through unknown means – and was resting comfortably by the heat. 

“Tommy.” Stella said calmly. She started to head toward him and the fire pit, but was stopped by the sudden smack of his bat into the floor. She was startled, and he was content. 

“I’m not gonna stay quiet.” Stella continued.

“Yeah, you are.” Tommy said without missing a beat. “And it’s not your turn.” 

“What?” Stella asked.

“We’re taking turns by the fire. I mean, since neither of us are leaving.” Tommy said impatiently.

“Why-“

“Because I’m not sharing it with you!” Tommy snapped. “Will you shut up already?”

“Are you serious? It’s freezing over here.” Stella argued. 

“Ask me if I care.” 

“Okay. Do-“

“No.” 

Stella inhaled sharply through her nose, doing her best to keep herself under control. She wasn’t THAT afraid of Tommy Milner, but she knew that he tended to get very impulsive at the slightest push; if she lost her temper, it would be over for both of them, and then they might not make it out of the storm alive. 

For the sake of the duo, Stella threw her arms down – painfully – and retreated to the corner of the barn where Tommy had found her glasses. Now that she could see, she had finally found something that was worthy of using as a makeshift bed; a bale of hay was sitting nicely against the wall of one of the stables.

Out of boredom, Stella took her time while she plucked the bale with her inner fingers, organizing the hay strands into a pile beside her lap. However, By the time she had plucked enough to make enough hay for a blanket, an hour and a half had passed. Now, with the pile at hand, she began to tie each individual twine of hay together. Similar to knitting.

“It’s your turn.” Tommy suddenly said. 

Stella had been happily distracted that she hadn’t noticed that Tommy might have been speaking to her. 

She glanced up at him, and met his eyes. It was brief, like looking at somebody from across the classroom before they quickly turned their heads away. Tommy mimicked the same gesture, turning away from Stella just as soon as they were face to face. He made his way back to his own corner, where Stella had found him sulking in the dark just the night before. 

And so, the day continued on like this. While Stella had her turn at the fire, she continued to try and contact Auggie, Chuck, and anybody else that she could think of on her radio. Every time she tried, the radio would fail to pick up any transmissions, or even any frequencies. When Stella was away from the fire, she was working on her hay twines. She tied them together in knots, forming a flat surface that was similar to a blanket. She had experience with knitting together wool blankets, rags, and sometimes even a sweater if she had the time for it. 

Tommy’s time spent, on the other hand, was a mystery. Stella didn’t know what he was doing when he retreated into his corner when it wasn’t his turn by the fire. 

When Stella returned to the fire later in the night, after the sun had set once again, she had decided that she needed to start talking to somebody. She was getting restless, bored, and quite frankly, living with somebody else who you rarely talk to is a bit depressing. So, to satisfy her social needs, she brought out her radio, and despite the lack of audience, she began to talk.

“Hey. It’s me.” Stella said quietly into the radio. “I’m still here…there was a blizzard, and it hit the town pretty hard. I’m safe, but it’s still pretty bad out there. I’m in a barn, with someone else that I saved from the storm, and I don’t know when we’re going to get out of here. I hope it’s soon. I wish it’d be over now, but it’s not. I don’t know if my friends are okay. I left them in a car, and that was the last time I saw them, and I can’t talk to them. The storm…I don’t know, it’s blocking the signal or something. But I’m sure that they just drove off and made it home safe. And now I’m just spending time in here, by myself, because my roommate won’t talk to me. It’s fine though…you don’t have to worry. Not that you ever do, but…whatever. I’m okay for now. I’ll let you know if I ever make it out. I love you, still.” 

Stella pushed the antenna back into the radio, and sighed with desperation. Even though she was used to spending most nights in her room, writing her imagination onto paper, she wanted to talk to somebody; a REAL person. She couldn’t spend the rest of her time in this barn, isolated from the only other person in the room. 

So, when Tommy started coming back toward the fire, Stella decided to drop the “for the good of the duo” attitude, and stood by her heart.

“Move. You’re done.” Tommy growled, lifting his bat and letting it lean heavily on his shoulder. 

“No.” Stella said quickly. 

“Hm.” Tommy grunted, moving his bat off of his shoulder and letting the head of it rest on the floorboards. “What?” 

“It’s cold back there. I don’t care what you do, or what you say, or what you THINK, but I’m…I need the warm. We both do.” She started defiantly. “And I-“

SMACK!

Tommy slammed the head of his bat against the floorboards, and the crash echoed out of the barn. Dust and soot fell from the rafters of the ceiling, and acted as slight fuel for the fire. Stella saw the initials that were inscribed into the bat:

LM TM

Tommy frowned, and slowly maneuvered to the fire. “Move.” He said swiftly, but quietly. 

“’What did I say?’” Stella mocked, looking up at the bully with piercing eyes. “Read my lips. I’m, not, mo- AH!”

Tommy had dropped his bat and used both of his hands to grab Stella by the collar of her jacket. “I told you to MOVE!” He shouted as he began to drag her toward the stable doors! “NO!” Stella cried, kicking out with her feet! Her shoe hit the bat, and sent it rolling to an unknown part of the barn. “Let go, Tommy!”

“I told you…” Tommy hissed. Stella tried to throw punches into Tommy’s face, but he was quick to dodge them. Granted, her punches were very slow, and easy to predict. 

With no alternative, Stella impulsively opened her mouth and bit down on Tommy’s knuckles, crushing them as hard as she could! “FUCK!” Tommy screamed! He shook her hard, and tried to push her away from his arm, but she was clamped down hard. “GET.” Slap. “THE.” Slap. “FUCK.” Punch. “OFF!” 

The second punch knocked Stella out of her wits, and sent her falling back down to the ground. The back of her head hit the floorboards, and all that she could see were stars. She heard Tommy yelling in the background, but she couldn’t make out what he was saying. She could see him flailing his arm around, obviously in pain, but she couldn’t focus on what he looked like. 

“…bitch!...” She heard him say. 

Stella shook her head – like a dog does when he dries his fur – and squinted her eyes to gather more focus. She could finally see what Tommy was doing; his hand was bleeding furiously, and his face was grime with rage, and hatred. “Bit my…dare you…mother…” 

“Don’t…touch me.” Stella stammered. 

Tommy stopped dead in his tracks, and quickly kneeled down to meet Stella’s face. He used his free hand to tilt her head up, so that they were looking each other in the eyes. “What did you say?” He asked. 

“Don’t touch me…again.” Stella breathed. “…asshole.” 

Tommy paused for a moment, digesting the command that Stella had just given him. Then, he grinned; teeth and all. He slightly pushed Stella back into the floor, and shook his head in disgust. “You can’t tell me what to do, Nicholls.”

Stella breathed, exhausted, in pain everywhere, and mentally drained. The back of her head was on fire, her fingers were suffering from cold-related burns, and she had various legions around her arms and legs. And now, her heart was taking some damage too.

“Get the hell out of my barn.” He said, escaping from his kneel and beginning a pace around the room. He held his injured hand in the other, wincing as he cleared away the oozing blood. 

“No.” Stella spit, finally losing her timid attitude. “I told you, I need the warm.” 

Tommy sneered at Stella, and started to tremble with a profound anger that Stella had never seen before. “What the hell is wrong with you?” He asked. 

“Me!? M-ME!?” Stella screamed! “What about you!?” 

“Watch it, Nicholls.” Tommy said. 

“You don’t scare me, dickhead.” Stella growled. She pushed herself off of the ground, and stood her ground, slightly hunched over. “You’ve never scared me!” 

“I doubt that.” Tommy said, smirking for a brief second. “I scare everyone. Especially those twerps you hang around with.”

Stella chuckled, finding that statement ridiculous. “Not me.” She said. “I’ve been nothing but nice to you ever since I brought you in here. I-I gave you the benefit of the doubt, and I went out to save your life, even if-“

“You didn’t save me.” Tommy snarled, facing her now. 

“-EVEN IF!” Stella continued! “Even if I was in danger too! I-I put my NECK out there for you! And this is how you repay me?” She started.

“You didn’t SAVE me.” Tommy argued back. 

“Sure, we’ll go with that.” Stella said, throwing her hands into the air sarcastically. “I got you here.” 

“I was heading here anyway.” Tommy argued. 

“But you didn’t make it.” Stella taunted. “You weren’t even strong enough to make it out of the cornfield without-“ 

“Shut up.” Tommy demanded, pointing a finger at Stella, and making small strides toward her. “Shut up.”

“Where are your friends, Tommy? Huh? What’d you do to them!?” Stella pressed, making her own strides toward Tommy.

“I didn’t do a thing to them! THEY left ME!” Tommy shouted! 

“Who could blame them?” Stella taunted.

“You know what?” Tommy stated. “I don’t need you. I don’t need your help, and I don’t need you to tell ME what to do! Nobody tells ME what to do!

“Yeah, well maybe that’s your whole problem.” Stella continues. “You have nobody to guide you, nobody to tell you what’s right or wrong…nobody that cares enough to see you prosper.” 

Tommy’s eye twitched, and he ran a trembling hand over his mouth, unable to speak. 

Stella and Tommy had met in the middle of the barn and were inches away from each other now, staring into each other’s eyes. Stella didn’t see what she had seen earlier in Tommy’s eyes; this time, she saw nothing but the worst kinds of emotion. They were boiling, mixing, and mutating into something unique. Something that Tommy wasn’t even aware of. 

“You’re one to talk.” Tommy said, breaking into a sadistic, knowing smile. “Where’s your mommy, Nicholls?” 

Stella’s confrontational and righteous lust for justice was destroyed in that single instant. It was as if a sword had sliced through her very essence, and torn it into pieces. Out of everything that Stella had wrong with her, Tommy had hit the weak spot. The lowest point in her life; the big picture. “Yeah…mommy ran away…didn’t she?” Tommy asked slowly. “You wanna know why she ran away?” He asked, getting closer to her. 

Stella started to shake, a mixture of cold, anxiety, and pain all together. She looked down at the floor, unable to look Tommy in the eyes anymore. She was defeated, it was over for her. He had won.

“…because you’re a brat.” Tommy whispered. “She knew that…and…she’s gone, Stella. She left, forever, because of you…you fucked up, and you’ll never, ever see her again.” 

Stella closed her eyes, and let the tears flow. She was crying in front of him, dignity out of the window. She put her hands into her face, and held back her scream.

“Yeah…or maybe it was…your father.” Tommy said. 

Stella’s eyes flung open, and she dropped her hands immediately. She looked directly at Tommy now; she didn’t know that it was possible to get so angry, so fast. 

“She knew that he was a loser…I mean, everyone in town knows that about him…he can’t keep a job, or a girlfriend…jeez, I’d hate to be his kid-” Tommy started.

Stella lost it.

Her hand crashed against the side of Tommy’s face, and his head snapped to the side. He was dumbstruck, and before he could figure out what had just happened, Stella’s other hand had struck the other side of his face. Tommy stumbled backwards and fell onto the floor, stunned and confused by what had just happened. 

Stella cried out in horror; on her right hand, the skin on the ends of her fingers had burst open from the sheer force of the slaps, and they were bleeding out of the black bruises. “Ah!” She screamed, holding her fingers under her jacket to numb the pain!

“You…” Tommy said, frantically looking around for something. He found it – his baseball bat. He scrambled to his feet, and marched over, grabbing the bat in both of his hands. “I’m going to murder you!” He shouted! 

“Ah!” Stella whined! She collapsed again, falling onto her bottom, and cradling her wounded fingers. She looked up, and saw Tommy making his way over to her, bat in hand. “Stop!” She shouted! She began crawling backwards, eager to get away from him. Her back hit the wall of the barn, and it was too late to try and move again; he was here. “Tommy, just-!” She said, crying in pain. 

“You wanna run?” Tommy asked. He didn’t smile this time. “Your family’s good at that…go ahead…I’m gonna give you FIVE seconds to get the hell out of here!” He shouted! 

“Or what?” Stella breathed. Her jacket was coated with dripping blood, and the cold was rendering her fingers useless. 

“Five…” Tommy counted, putting one hand around the base of his bat. 

“Tommy.” Stella grunted. 

“Four…” Tommy put his other hand around the base of his bat, above the other hand. 

Stella knew that Tommy had it in him to be a real piece of shit, but she doubted that he had the guts to actually carry out a premeditated murder. 

“Three…” Tommy lifted the bat upwards, and let it rest on his shoulders. 

“You…” Stella said, but was cut off by the exploding pain in her fingertips. 

“Two…” Tommy positioned himself, extending his arms, and his legs. He took on a batter’s swinging position, as if he was getting ready to hit a ball that was about to be pitched to him. 

“You’ll never know…” Stella tried to say. “…what it’s like.” 

Tommy froze, ready to swing the bat downward and crush Stella’s head against the end of it. “What?” He asked. 

“You’ll never know what it’s like to feel what I feel.” Stella started. “To lose somebody important to you. It’s not something you can just live with. It’s not something you can just imagine, or will yourself into feeling…it’s very real…and you won’t ever, ever understand it. You wanna know why?” She said, slightly mocking his tone. 

Tommy remained silent; his face furious. 

“Because you don’t care about anybody…and nobody cares about you. At least I had somebody to lose.”  
Tommy closed his eyes, as if remembering something, and his face began to loosen up. His eyebrows raised themselves, his eye wrinkles dissipated, and the corners of his lips straightened out. Stella was slightly surprised. 

“You don’t know anything about me.” Tommy said quietly. 

“Go to hell.” Stella said through teary eyes.

Tommy opened his eyes, and brought the bat down. 

SMACK!

Stella flinched and covered her face, but the bat had struck the floorboards directly beside her head. She looked back up at Tommy, frightened, and was somewhat grateful that the bad hadn’t hit her head. 

He stared down at her, his eyes empty again. He was breathing hard, and the sweat was coating his hairline. He closed his eyes again, perhaps glad that he had let his anger out of his system. 

Then, Tommy lifted the bat off of the floor, and started to walk toward the stable doors. He mumbled to himself as he marched, unintelligible to Stella. She watched as Tommy grabbed the silver rod that was the lock to the door, and pulling as hard as he could!

Stella knew what he was trying to do. A part of her wanted to stop him, and apologize for the way she’d acted toward him, but the other part of her really wanted him to leave. He was nothing but horrible to her, and wasn’t giving her much confidence in her ability to save lives. 

“DAMN IT!” Tommy shouted! The rod didn’t move an inch; it was frozen stuck. Tommy grabbed the end of his bat and slammed it into the rod multiple times, barely able to break the ice that was wrapped around it. 

Tommy stopped in front of the doors, and started to take deep breaths. He rested his arms against the doors, facing away form Stella and looking down at the floor. Stella could have sworn that she could hear a bit of sniffling. But that might have just been her imagination. She followed his silhouette with her eyes, and watched as the colors of his varsity jacket began to darken, and then disappear altogether. The last thing that she saw was the Jaguar that was stitched onto the back of his jacket. Then, he was gone. Tommy had retreated back into his dark corner of the barn, and wasn’t seen for the rest of the day, or night. Stella wasn’t sure which it was. 

The barn was dark, Stella couldn’t see, and the only person that she was surviving with was pretty much morally gone. She was alone, damaged beyond repair, and worst of all, she was cold. Left with nothing else to do, Stella wrapped her arms around herself, and laid down in front of the wall, piercing cold at her backside. And she cried. No, she sobbed. Sobbed as loudly as she could. She screamed, yelled, and punched the floorboards. She kicked the stable doors, and threw her glasses across the barn. She blamed Tommy, she blamed herself, she blamed her absent mother, and out of pure anger, she irrationally blamed her father for the predicament she was in.


	8. Gathering Water

The storm was still blowing across the town by the time the sun came up the morning after, although it had decreased significantly in terms of severity. Some poorly built houses in town had collapsed under the weight of the snow, and the streets were completely hidden under enormous measurements of snow. There were very few emergency workers in town; they were bundled up in oversized coats, trousers, some of which were multi-layered. The workers were shoveling snow away from the houses, working to free families which had been trapped inside of their homes by the snowfall. Businesses in town were still closed, and the schools were unavailable for the day. 

Inside of the Brown, poorly built barn, Stella Nichols was inside, lying unconscious. Her body had been moved to the front of the fire pit, which had been re-started thanks to a few more supplies worth of wooden logs. 

Beside the pit, fueling the fire, was Tommy Milner. With the sun in the sky, the barn finally had light coming through the cracks in the walls. With a way to see, he had collected all of the spare wood that he found in the barn – which wasn’t much – and used it to fuel another fire to keep himself, and Stella, warm. Stella had been unconscious for the majority of the night, and the morning. He had found her passed out in the middle of the barn, bleeding and cold to the touch. 

So, he had moved her to the fire pit during the night. 

It was about 20 minutes before Stella started to stir. Tommy sat a few feet away from her, and was cautious of how she might react when she saw him by the fire. Her eyes opened slowly, and she let out a painful groan. Stella turned her head to look at whoever was sitting beside her. She saw Tommy, and her heart jumped into action. “Tommy?” She slurred. 

Tommy glanced at her, and then looked back into the flames. Stella moaned, closing her eyes. “I…ugh, I thought-“

“Yeah, yeah.” Tommy said without so much as a flick-of-the-eyes in her general direction. 

As Stella processed the fact that Tommy was still here with her, she was suddenly aware of what she was physically feeling. Everything hurt, and this wasn’t an exaggeration. Aside from that, she was completely parched, and she was starving. “Ugh…. I’m starving.” 

“Mhm.” Tommy said, sniffing hungrily. 

Stella moved her hand up toward her face, but she felt the open wounds on her fingers, and she stopped moving! “Ah! No, no!” She whispered, cradling her right hand in her left one. She looked at the wounds; they were worse than before. Blood, puss, and black skin were all that was left of the ends of her fingers. “Oh, my god!” 

Tommy stared at her fingers with a blank expression. He didn’t seem angry, or upset; he didn’t seem like he felt anything for her, judging by the looks of his face. “That’s frostbite.” He said.

“It hurts, Tommy! It hurts so bad!” She whined! 

Tommy grimaced at the sight of Stella’s cries of pain, and then looked back into the flames. He was formulating some sort of idea. “Put it over the fire.” He said. 

“What!?” Stella cried out.

“The hand, Nichols.” Tommy ordered, glancing from her fingers to her face. 

Stella, with no hesitation, held her injured fingers over the flames in the fire pit. “AHH!” She cried out! “It’s making it worse, Tommy!” 

Tommy shook his head. “Don’t hold it so close to the fire, then.” He ordered somewhat angrily. When he saw that Stella was reluctant to move her hand in any direction, he seemed to relax a little bit. “Heat helps frostbite. But only in small doses…I know about stuff like that.” 

Stella gulped, and held her fingers a little further away from the flame, but close enough to keep them warm. “You sure?” She asked.

“Mhm.” Tommy grunted. 

Stella was unsure of whether to take Tommy’s word for it, but figured that something was better than doing nothing. As she held her fingers over the fire, she wondered about what happened last night, and why Tommy had come back. She debated to herself about whether she should ask him about it. After a long while of heating, she decided to go for it. “Why?” 

Tommy stayed quiet for almost a full minute. You could have assumed that he didn’t even hear the question. “Why what?” He mumbled. 

“Why are you helping me now?” 

“I mean, if you prefer to sit in the corner again.” Tommy started. 

“No. It’s fine.” Stella replied, returning to awkward silence as she held her badly bruised fingertips over the flames. Stella was more or less content with his answer; although, she was slightly disappointed. Why was she disappointed? 

“You know, this storm could keep going for another day or two.” Stella started to say. 

“So?” Tommy asked sassily. 

“So, we need to think about getting resources. Water and Food, that’s all we need right now. We have shelter, and warmth, but…I need help. I can’t do this by myself.” 

“It’s colder than a warlock’s ball sack in here.” Tommy said, kicking the dust underneath his shoe, and getting up. “I think you can cross off warmth from your list.” 

“We have a fire. That’s good enough.” Stella argued. 

“For now.” Tommy said, looking at the rattling doors to the Barn. “There’s not that much wood left, genius. What do you wanna do about that?” He asked, looking down at Stella. 

“I…I don’t know. I…” 

“Figures.” Tommy said, taking a few steps toward the doors. 

“You gonna leave?” Stella asked, with a hint of shade thrown into her question. Tommy laughed, and looked down at the floor in response. “I wish I could, Nicholls.” He said, turning his head to look back at her. “But I’m stuck with you, so…” 

Stella smiled ironically. 

By the time that mid-afternoon had arrived, Tommy had already found a shovel from one of the barn’s stalls, and had begun to bring scoops of snow in from a small hole that was in the bottom of the barn’s walls. It wasn’t big enough to put both of them in danger, but it was big enough to cause a draft. Regardless, Tommy started to collect the snow into a pile in the middle of the barn, and use the shovel to organize it into a few buckets that were sitting in a chest in the back of the barn. The plan was to melt the snow in the buckets in order to create drinkable water. 

Stella watched from the comfort of the fire pit as Tommy started to organize the snow, staying quiet and gruff. 

“You know,” He grunted, turning around with the shovel in his hands. “You could have helped, instead of sitting by the fire like a bum.” 

Stella was slightly stung by the remark, but she showed him her fingertips, which had slowly begun the healing process. Nevertheless, they were still dried with blood, and badly burned. “I have bad hands.” She said.

“Whatever.” He said, unimpressed. He dropped the shovel onto the ground, and observed the pile of snow that he’d gathered from outside. “I can drink this crap in an hour, so you’re gonna have to help eventually.”

“We need it for the rest of the day, remember? You can’t drink all of it so soon.” She said, observing her fingers. “And I think they’re getting better…they’re warm, and they’ve stopped bleeding at least.” 

Tommy raised an eyebrow and stomped over to the fire pit, crouching and observing Stella’s fingertips with his own two eyes. “I didn’t think that would work.” He said with a smirk. Stella gave him the ‘are you serious?’ look, and he shrugged it off. “So, you want the good news, or bad news?”

“There’s news?” Stella asked. “About what?” 

“About your overcooked sausages.” Tommy chuckled, poking one of her fingertips. She winced painfully, and he sniggered. “Ow! The…the bad news.” She said.

“Well, bad news is that your fingers aren’t going to get any better than that right now.” He said, looking back up at Stella. “And the good news?” She asked. 

“If you wrap them up with something, they’ll live.” 

“Okay, what should I put on them?” 

“How should I know?” Tommy asked. 

“Because you, apparently, know everything.”

“You’re telling me that you don’t have any bandages?” 

“I guess I forgot to bring the toolkit out on prank day.” She said sarcastically.

Tommy scoffed, and angrily threw his arm downward. “Don’t remind me.” He growled, standing up again, and pacing toward his side of the barn. “I swear to god, when I find that little- “ 

“Tommy!” Stella interrupted! He stopped speaking, and looked back at her. Their eyes met, and Stella tried to telepathically tell Tommy that enough was enough. “Chuck’s my friend, and you hurt him. I didn’t forget about that.” She said.

“I didn’t forget about the assault on my house either, Nicholls.” He snarled. He grabbed a bucket that he had found on his side of the barn, and began to collect the snow that he had stacked onto the pile. 

“Just so you know, this doesn’t make us friends.” 

“I figured.” Stella argued back. As Tommy filled the bucket up with snow, Stella searched her pockets for anything that she could define as useful for keeping her fingertips covered. All that she could find in her pockets was the small radio, and pieces of lint. “Crap.” She whispered. 

She decided to remove her jacket from her body, leaving her in two layers of long-sleeved t-shirts. “Oh, crap!” She hissed to herself! Without her jacket, she would be freezing cold, no matter how much fire was in the fire pit. She wrapped her jacket around all five of her fingers, and held it down tight. She grimaced, and stifled a pained yelp. 

Tommy glanced over at Stella, and watched as she wrapped her own jacket around her fingers. He stopped putting snow into the bucket, and wrinkled his eyebrows in confusion. He was trying to figure out what he was feeling. He didn’t know how to identify it, but in a sense, he felt…bad. Not, bad as in ‘I’m gonna die’ bad, but ‘this doesn’t need to happen’ kind of bad. He didn’t know the meaning for it. But he did have an idea on how to make this feeling go away. “Put it back on.” He ordered.

“Hm?” Stella asked aloud.

“The jacket. Just put it back on.” He said, leaving the bucket, and crouching down beside Stella. “Why?” She asked. Tommy twitched, and ran a hand across his mouth. “Just do it, before I change my mind.” 

Stella obeyed and slipped the jacket back onto her body, confused about Tommy’s motivations. 

Tommy shook his head – in an ‘I can’t believe I’m doing this’ fashion – and with both of his hands, tore off a small piece of cloth off of the bottom of his red t-shirt. He wrapped it around one of Stella’s fingers, and slipped the ends of them together in a neat little fold. “Tommy…” Stella started.

“Don’t.” Tommy interrupted. Stella remained quiet as Tommy tore off 4 more individual pieces of his shirt, and wrapped them around her badly bruised fingertips. 

“You need your shirt if you want to stay warm.” Stella said humbly.

“I haven’t been “warm” since last week, Nichols.” Tommy huffed, finishing off the final makeshift bandage, and giving Stella a look. “And besides, you need your hands because you’re melting the snow.” He said with a knowing grin. Stella fought back a smile of her own, finding it inappropriate to smile in the face of somebody who had just tried to abandon her the night prior. “Fine.” She said. 

With freshly wound fingers, she finished packing the bucket full of snow, and carried it over to the firepit with ease. She held the bucket out in front of her, above the flames, and patiently waited for the snow to work it’s magic. “I haven’t had any water in…oh my god, 2 days.” Stella said. “I’m surprised that I’m not even parched, yet.”

Tommy shrugged his shoulders, and stood over the firepit, watching over the bucket of snow. 

“It’s thick snow. It’s not gonna melt that fast.” Stella said matter-of-factually. 

“Whatever, Einstein.” Tommy grunted, taking a seat in front of the fire pit, and crossing his arms over his chest. “I just wanna drink something.” 

“You and me both.” Stella commented. She held the bucket over the flames for a good five minutes before her arms began to give out. She checked the contents of the bucket; the snow had not entirely melted yet. “Can you carry the bucket?” She asked. 

“I can. But I don’t want to.” Tommy said, biting his bottom lip and staring openly into the flame. He was implying that Stella was going to be the one to transport the buckets.

“Dude, my arms are killing me.” Stella argued. “I can’t.”

Tommy ignored her, and continued to stare openly into the fire. He was deep in thought; his mind was a mystery to everybody in town. Nobody knew him personally, except for his friends on the Mill Valley Football team. As Stella thought about the two jocks, a question popped into her head. 

“How come the other two weren’t with you when I found you?” Stella asked. Tommy didn’t answer her. 

“Did you lose them?” She asked. Tommy didn’t answer her. “Did you seriously kill them?” She asked.

Tommy answered her: “No.” 

“So?” She said. 

“So…!” Tommy suddenly shouted. “They bailed on me. I …the stupid corn…it got me. I fell and they kept going.” He said, scoffing once he had finally gotten that off of his chest. “Davidson. I taught him how to juke, and he leaves me behind to die. What a prick.” He said angrily. Stella took a gulp, and her heart started to race once she had begun to think of her next sentence. 

“I didn’t leave you to die.” She said. 

Tommy didn’t say anything further. 

It took about 20 more minutes of awkward silence between the two of them before the snow inside of the bucket had fully melted into fresh water, and the two of them began to share the contents. Tommy drank the slight majority of the bucket, while Stella got the minority. “I need more.” Tommy grumbled. He left the fire pit and approached the hole, collecting as much snow from the gap in the barn walls as he could before he brought the buckets back to the fire. He repeated the process 3 or 4 more times throughout the evening, collecting fresh water for both him and Stella. Their thirst was quenched.  
With nothing left to do but sit and wait for help, both Tommy and Stella were forced to come up with ways to keep themselves busy. Tommy took to beating random spots in the ground – and walls – with his baseball bat, while Stella continued to work on her hay blanket. Now that her fingers were bandaged up, she felt more comfortable with handling the hay.

A couple of hours passed before the sun was nearly set in the horizon. Stella listened to the storm outside, and noticed something; the wind outside was starting to truly die down. The cold was still there, as well as the harsh snowfall, but the winds were the first to start dissipating. 

“I think the storm is letting up.” Stella commented. 

“Yeah, yeah.” Tommy said. He bashed the walls once again, and he let out a battle cry as he took another swing.

“Don’t you think you’re gonna end up putting holes in the walls?” Stella asked him. 

“If I’m lucky.” Tommy said, smashing the wall with another thrust of his bat. 

“And then we’re gonna freeze to death.” Stella said. 

“If I’m lucky.” Tommy repeated, beating on the walls again. 

Stella ignored him and continued to work on her hay blanket. She was nearly finished; she only had one more corner to weave before she could finally sleep comfortably under the bale. 

“S…in…” the radio suddenly cackled!

Stella excitedly reached into her pocket, and yanked out the radio before throwing out the antenna and gripping the channel dial. “H-hello!?” She stammered! “Chuck! Auggie!” 

“D..ink…face…”

“Hello!?” Stella shouted into the radio! It crackled with interference, beeps and static, but she couldn’t pick up the signal again. “Gimme that.” Tommy ordered, swooping down and snatching the radio out of   
Stella’s hands. “How do you turn it on?” 

“It’s on, bozo! Give it back!” She whined, reaching for the radio. Tommy pulled it out of her reach, and brought the radio up to his own mouth. “Jock to Nerd, Jock to Nerd, do you read?” He asked, laughing! 

“That’s not funny!” Stella exclaimed! “They might be safe, and they might have a car to come get us!” 

“Well, let me ask.” Tommy smirked. “Jock to Nerd, are you coming for us?” He asked into the radio. There was no response; only more static. “Jock to Nerd, Jock to Nerd! Come in!” He smiled, awaiting a response. 

“Maybe…it’s on a different channel. Just give me the-“ Stella started.

“Or.” Tommy interrupted. “It doesn’t work, and we’re wasting our time.”

“It DOES work! It’s-it’s just the storm…it’s not letting it pick up the transmissions right.” 

“Ahh!” Tommy laughed. “Is that so?” He asked, holding the radio high above his head.

“Yes, it is. You wanna get out of here, same as me, right!?” She asked impatiently.

“More than you.” Tommy said slowly.

“So give me the damn radio.” She commanded. 

Tommy shrugged his shoulders, and threw the radio high up into the air. Stella went out of her way and stumbled in order to catch it! Tommy coldly laughed at her clumsy catch, and turned his attention to the hay blanket that Stella was weaving together. “What’s that?” He asked disgustingly, bending over and picking it up. 

“A blanket.” Stella said, snatching it out of his hands and holding it close to her chest. “I made it out of the hay bale that I found back there.” 

“You mean, MY hay bale?” Tommy asked. “Since it’s MY barn, that’s technically MY blanket.” 

“You’re not gonna take it from me.” Stella said. 

Tommy chuckled. “I don’t want your dirty blanket anyway. I don’t get THAT cold…” He said, maneuvering toward his corner of the barn. “I’m going to sleep…don’t bother me unless someone’s coming to get us.” He demanded, disappearing into the dark corner of the barn. 

Stella gulped quietly. She played with the radio, and listened for any more broadcasts of the voice that she had heard. But she heard nothing except for the white noise. “Damn it!” She called out, throwing her radio into the ground and retreating into her dark corner. 

After a while, Stella could hear the snores of Tommy from across the barn. Since the wind had died down, she guessed that she could hear a lot of things that she wasn’t able to hear before. 

With Tommy asleep, Stella decided to pick up her makeshift hay blanket, and bring it closer to the fire. She continued to weave for almost another hour, before she was starting to get sleepy too. After she had added a few more logs to the fire pit, she made a soft spot on the floor below, and curled up rather nicely. She brought the hay blanket over her body, closed her eyes, and pulled her radio out of her pocket. She turned it on, and brought the radio to her lips.

“It’s me again. I wish you were here. Never mind. I’m sure you wouldn’t want to be here, in the cold with me. Then again, you probably wouldn’t want to be with me if it was warm either…but, I like to ignore that. I just want to go home. I want to see him, and tell him that I’m okay. I hope you’re okay. Deep down, I hope that you’re okay. You’re probably not even thinking of me. Or him. You’re probably happy with someone else, but that’s fine, because even if you don’t think of me, I’m always thinking about you. Especially now. I might not even get to see you again, because I might die here. Not that it would affect you, but you know…I like to ignore that. Anyway, I…I’m sort of proud that I saved him. He doesn’t like to admit it, but I saved his life. He knows that. I know that. He’s gonna live a bit longer because of me. There’s no harm in that. Right? Right. I just hope he doesn’t repay the favor. You know, die for me? Or risk his life for me. That would suck…I’m going to go. I’ll talk to you again soon. Goodnight.”

Stella clicked the radio off, and closed her eyes, drifting away into a light sleep. 

Hopefully, the storm would be over by tomorrow.


	9. Recess

“The storm’s not over.” Tommy said. 

He had just woken up Stella with a light kick to the side, and he was not happy about the weather. The winds have almost completely died down, but the snowfall has increased dramatically. Tommy had tried to open the stable doors, but snow was pressed firmly against the entrance from the outside; the hinges were frozen shut, which meant that the doors weren’t opening anytime soon. Worst of all, the fire pit had gone out; there were no more logs to fuel the fire with.

“We can’t even get out of here.” He said, kicking the floor in anger. 

“Did you try harder?” Stella asked. Tommy scoffed scornfully and looked at her from afar. “If I couldn’t get it open the first time, I can’t get it open AT ALL.”

“Well, then.” Stella huffed. 

“CRAP!” Tommy shouted, beating the floor with the base of his bat. “Crap, crap, crap!” 

“Hey!” Stella exclaimed! “Relax.” 

“Don’t tell me to relax, Nicholls. I haven’t eaten in days, I’m stuck in a cold ass crack-house, and I can’t get out.” He began. “I need to eat something, or I’m gonna lose my shit.” He continued. 

“Tommy, we’re both hungry. There’s nothing we can do except wait.”

“Yeah, for god-forsaken rescue.” Tommy started to rant. “I thought your dorks would be here by now.” 

“Don’t call them dorks.” Stella said calmly, reaching into her pocket, and pulling out her radio. “I’m going to try them again. 

“Just hurry.” Tommy ordered, pacing quickly across the barn. He ran a hand through his hair, obviously distressed. Stella turned the radio on, but rather than hearing the usual static and beeping from the device, she heard nothing. “What the…” The whispered. She tried turning it on again, but again, she heard nothing.

“It’s dead.” Stella said with horror. 

“You’ve gotta be shitting me.” Tommy growled, marching over to Stella and grabbing the radio for himself. He flicked the power switch on, and was met with the same uncomfortable silence that Stella had encountered. “Hello!?” He said into the radio. “Dorks come on! Hello!?” 

“Tommy, it’s dead!” Stella exclaimed! “The battery’s dead, it’s…it’s not gonna work anymore.” Tommy’s hand trembled as he stared at the radio, and he crinkled his nose in anger. “GAH!” Tommy screamed, throwing the radio onto the floor, and crushing it with the back of his boot! He stomped the radio to shreds, destroying every last piece of its technological guts. 

“TOMMY!” Stella cried out! She dashed forward and got onto her knees, scraping up the remaining bits of the radio! “What did you do!?” 

“I killed the dorks.” Tommy said, snarking. “It was dead anyway.” 

“The BATTERY was dead!” Stella shouted! “The radio worked fine!” 

“So you got another battery on you, or what?” Tommy asked.

“Shut up, you idiot.” Stella mumbled as she put the radio remains back on the floor.

Tommy paused, and swung his bat around his left hand, before bringing it to a stop on his left shoulder. He bit his lip, and furrowed his eyebrows as he stared at Stella. “Whaaaat did you call me?”

“You’re a freaking idiot.” Stella said, gritting her teeth and tossing the technological guts at Tommy’s feet. “You destroyed the only source of communication that we had, because you can’t control your impulses. That makes you an idiot.” She finished bravely. 

Tommy smirked at her, and brought his bat back down to the ground. He lifted his chin and brushed at some of the stubble that he had under it. Then, he lowered his chin back down, and stared at Stella for a good, long moment before he spoke again: “Stand still.” He said, slowly walking toward her. 

“What are you doing?” Stella asked, getting to her feet, and standing her ground.

“I’m starving, and you’re the only meat sack within miles of this place, so stand still.” Tommy said, swinging his bat around his hand again. 

“Wha…what!” Stella said in the midst of a stifled laugh. “Are you crazy?” 

“I dunno.” Tommy slurred. “Let’s find out!” 

He swung his bat toward Stella’s chest, and she quickly ducked out of the way before it could hit her. 

Tommy laughed as he missed his target, and swung toward her again. Stella lunged backwards, and avoided the head of the bat by centimeters. “Stand still, damn it!” Tommy chuckled! 

“Get away from me, Tommy!” Stella cried out! She backed up as far as she could, until she hit the back of the barn, and was forced to dodge to the side as the baseball bat crashed against the wall. “Ah!” She screamed! Instead of continuing to swing at Stella, he dropped his bat onto the floor, and rushed at her with the full force of his body! “Rah!” He growled as he tackled her to the ground! 

“No!” Stella exclaimed! She tried to fight Tommy off of her with her hands, but Tommy had grabbed her arm by the wrist, and held it firmly in place. “Tommy, let go!” she demanded! 

Tommy playfully pretended to bite her arm, laughing in the face of domination. 

“I’m serious, Tommy!” Stella said, her plead of despair turning into a giggle. “Let go!” 

“You gonna make me, Nicholls?” Tommy asked, laughing. “Ha-Ha HA-HA!” 

“Maybe!” She laughed. Stella threw her bad hand out in front of his face to try and distract him and create an opportunity to escape, but Tommy was quicker. He swiped at it with the palm of his fingers, and bashed against the bandaged wounds on her fingers. “OW, AH!” Stella cried out, shutting her eyes, looking to the side, and holding her injured hand in between her legs to induce pressure.

“Shit.” Tommy breathed, shocked at what had just happened. He looked down at her, rose an eyebrow, and stared at her. “Are you…” He started. Stella looked back up at him, and used her free hand to wipe the few tears away from her eyes. They weren’t from the pain; they were from the laughs. 

“What?” Stella grimaced, looking into his eyes. 

They both stayed like this, Tommy on top of Stella, staring at each other. Neither one of them spoke, despite both of them wanting to speak. 

Tommy looked down at Stella’s face, and for the first time since he’d known her, he noticed her features. She had faint freckles that ran across the middle of her face, and up to her forehead as well. Her nose was particularly small, but rounded at the tip. Her eyes were bright blue, stained by the bloodshot that ran across them. They were slightly wet; she had been crying. 

“Tommy…” Stella said quietly. 

Tommy gently shook his head and blinked, still staring down at Stella. Then, he laughed. “You’re fine.” He said, lightly slapping Stella’s cheek and rolling off of her. He rested beside her, and looked up at the ceiling with his hands on his forehead. “You’re fingers are fine.” He said. 

Stella wasn’t sure if he was saying that to her, or to himself. “You just kinda made them flare up again.”

“Wah, wah.” Tommy mocked. “You shouldn’t have had them in the way.” 

“You shouldn’t have been trying to eat me!” Stella said with a slight smile. She made no attempt to hide it.

“Whatever.” He said. “So what’s your plan now?” He sat up, and propped his back against one of the horse stables. He brought his knees up to his chest, and sat with his arms resting across them. 

“My plan?” Stella asked, sitting up and wiping away the remaining tears on her face. 

“Uh huh. We’re starving, we can’t get any more water, we’re freezing, and we’re out of fuel for the fire…so what are you going to do about it?” Tommy asked her. 

“Why should I be the one to figure something out?” 

“Because…” Tommy started, but he stopped himself. 

“Because I’m smarter than you?” Stella teased.

“No, because you’re a dork. Dork.” Tommy said, biting his bottom lip. 

“Uh huh.” Stella said with the nod of her head. “Well, like I said…all we can do is wait.” She said,.

“Ugh…for fucks sake…you think so?” Tommy asked, annoyed.

“Yeah…I do.” Stella said. Her eyes shot open in excitement and she covered her mouth again! “I mean, you destroyed our radio, so yeah. We’re pretty screwed.

“Shut up.” Tommy said. He started to laugh, but every exhale caused pain to his stomach. “There’s gotta be a way. Maybe I can tear down the walls, and run back to my house.” 

“No.” Stella said. “You can’t go, because you’ll get lost, and then you’ll die.” 

“If I’m lucky.” Tommy said, throwing his hands up and letting them fall back into his lap. He turned his head to the side, and his eyes caught the hay blanket that was laid out in front of the empty fire pit. 

“Hey…what about your lame hay thing?” He asked.

“What about it?” Stella asked. 

“We can burn it.” Tommy said.

“Forget about it.” Stella proclaimed. 

“Why?” Tommy said. He jumped to his feet and slightly stumbled toward the blanket. “It’s literally grass.”

“Tommy, no!” Stella said! She dashed after him, and grabbed one end of the blanket while Tommy grabbed the other one. “I worked hard on this, and it keeps me kinda warm. Why don’t you just make your own!?” 

“I don’t make things. That’s a girl’s job.” He smirked, tugging at the blanket. “Let go, Nicholls.”

“Over my dead body.” Stella said, tugging at the blanket. 

“That can be arranged.” Tommy threatened, tugging at the blanket. 

“I’d like to see you try, bozo.” She replied, tugging at the blanket.

“Don’t tempt me.” Tommy smiled, tugging at the blanket. 

The blanket tore itself in half right then and there, leaving Tommy with half of a blanket, and Stella with half of a blanket, and a missing corner piece. “I can’t believe that you just did that!” Stella squealed!

“Believe it.” Tommy said. He plucked a single strand of hay out of the piece, and put it in his mouth. Then, he slapped his piece of blanket over the fire pit and kneeled over it. 

“You’re a real asshole.” She said, holding on tightly to her piece. 

“Mhm.” Tommy groaned, pulling a lighter out of his pocket and sliding it under the blanket. 

“So that’s how you’ve been lighting the fires.” Stella said, watching Tommy ignite the half hay blanket with the lighter.

“Uh, yeah. You thought I was rubbing two sticks together or something?” Tommy asked, flipping his lighter closed as the half hay blanket caught fire. It burned neatly in the fire pit, but was quick to wear   
itself out. 

“That’s not gonna burn for much longer.” Stella said. 

“So give me yours.” Tommy demanded. 

“No. I’ll-“ Stella started, but was interrupted by the swiping of Tommy’s hand! “I’ll do it!” She finished!

Tommy grinned, chewed on his hay, and watched excitedly as Stella planted a kiss onto the hay blanket that she was holding in her arms. “Sorry.” She whispered, before laying the hay blanket on top of the burning one, and watching it turn black. “Now I don’t have a blanket to wear.” 

“Join the club.” Tommy said, taking a seat beside the burning hay blankets. “You thought you’d be living in here?”

“No, but I didn’t plan on getting stuck in a barn with you, either. Stuff happens.” Stella said, taking her own seat on the floor, in front of the burning hay blankets. 

“Yeah, yeah. I’m not too excited about being in here with you, either.” Tommy said. 

“So I’m not exciting?” Stella asked.

“No.” Tommy said, staring into the burning blankets and chewing on his hay strand. 

“That’s harsh.” 

“Mhm.”


	10. Truth or Dare

Stella and Tommy had burned away both of the blankets within minutes of putting them in the fire pit, and were forced to resort to burning the actual hay bale that was in the barn. To avoid burning down the entire barn, they tore away a little bit at a time, rather than burning the entire bale at once. Although strenuous, it was keeping a warm fire going. 

The two of them talked, and teased each other all day long, waiting for rescue. Unfortunately, nobody had come by the time that the sun was beginning to set again. Stella and Tommy were starved, and somewhat delirious due to the circumstances that they found themselves in; the lack of resources and rescue didn’t bother them as well as it should have.

In fact, they were under the impression that they were doomed to die. So, while the hay bale was almost gone, Stella and Tommy had decided to play a very serious game. 

“Truth.” Stella said. 

“You ever screw someone in a bathroom before?” Tommy asked. “No!” Stella gasped! 

“Lame.” Tommy said. 

“Alright, Truth or Dare?” 

“Uh…Dare.” Tommy slurred. 

“I dare you to make out with your bat.” Stella said, smirking. 

“Fine.” Tommy said. He picked up his baseball bat, pretended to caress it, and brought the bat up to his lips. Stella giggled into her palms as Tommy ran his tongue over the wood, and gave little pecks on the top of its head! “Muah!” He breathed, breaking away from the object.

Stella cringed playfully and gave a small applause. 

“Love of my life!” Tommy exclaimed, planting a final kiss on the bat before he laid it down on the ground beside him. Stella glanced at the head of the bat and read the inscription again:

LM TM

Stella began to wonder about it. It looked like it had been drawn onto the bat, but she didn’t get a chance to analyze it any further. Tommy moved the bat behind him, and returned to the game. “Alright, dorkus. Truth or dare?”

“Truth.” 

“You ever screw someone in a closet before?” 

“No!” Stella said, rolling her eyes. 

“Jesus, you ever screw anyone at all?” Tommy slurred. 

“You can’t ask twice in a row.” Stella smirked. 

“Double lame.” Tommy said. 

“You’re lame.” Stella said. “Truth or dare?”

Tommy cocked his head to the side, and eyed Stella with a mysterious expression. “Truth.”

“Alright, daredevil.” Stella said. “I…hm…” Stella said, thinking about the question that she wanted to ask. She had an entire arsenal full of them, and she could definitely dish out a bunch. Then, she finally   
settled on one that would raise the stakes to a whole new level.

“I’m waiting.” Tommy said. 

“Who’s the hottest girl in school?” Stella asked, with a fist under her chin. 

Tommy rolled his eyes, and looked over to the side as he started to think about the answer. “God, where do I begin?” He asked playfully.

“Take your time.” Stella groaned. Tommy thought long and hard about who the hottest girl in school was. When he had finally seemed to settle on an answer, his eyes slowly made their back to Stella’s. Her heart jumped when their eyes locked again, and Tommy was quick with his answer.

“Betty Boop.” Tommy said almost immediately. 

“Are you kidding me?” Stella asked, raising her eyebrows.

“Nah.” Tommy argued. “She’s got a fine ass body, and her hair…oh man, that hair.” 

“I meant somebody from OUR school.”

“You didn’t say OUR school. You said ‘A’ school, dork.” Tommy corrected her. 

“Whatever.” Stella giggled. “Ask me.” 

“Okay. Tr-“

“Truth.” Stella interrupted with a smile. 

“You ever screwed anybody before?” Tommy asked. 

“Are all of your questions so disgusting?” Stella replied with the roll of her eyes. 

“Pretty much, yeah.” Tommy sniggered. “Answer the question.” 

“Uh…” Stella started. Her heart was beating fast, and she started to get nervously defensive about the truth. “What’s it to you, anyway?” 

“What’s it to you about who I think is the hottest girl in school is?” Tommy asked. He eyed her, and he gave her a knowing smile. 

“Touché…ugh, no, alright? I’ve never…you know…done the do.” Stella admitted.

Tommy laughed. “Ha-HA! ‘Done the do’? What are you, twelve?” 

“Maybe.” She said, laughing nervously. “My mind, I mean. The inside. You know.” 

“Do you want to?” Tommy asked.

Stella froze, and was hesitant to look Tommy in the eye after what he had just asked. Perhaps she didn’t understand the question. “…what?” She asked.

“You wanna screw somebody?” Tommy asked, moving his arms away from his knees, and down to his side.

“I…” Stella stammered. She cleared her throat, and closed her eyes. “I don’t…what are you…” 

“Stop playing stupid. You know what I mean.” Tommy said. He brought one hand over the center of his belt buckle, and started to jiggle it. “We’re stuck, so we might as well have some fun.” 

“Stop.” Stella said. Her heart wasn’t racing anymore. If anything, it had slowed down. “Oh, come on Nicholls.” Tommy slurred. “I see the way you’ve been looking at me…” 

“I said, stop.” Stella firmly said. 

“It’s okay to be nervous. Most girls are, when they’re with me-“

“STOP!” 

Tommy stared at her with an annoyed expression, while Stella stared back with a fearful one. Stella was petrified, and found it hard to believe that she was even having this conversation with somebody as bad as Tommy Milner. This was the same guy who had strung up her best friend on a post not just a few days earlier. Tommy had abandoned her during their first night here, constantly made life hell for most of Mill Valley High, and had perhaps one of the worst personalities that Stella had ever seen on a person. 

“I…I’m sorry, I just…” Stella started. 

“Whatever.” Tommy said. 

The two of them stared quietly into the burning hay. If it burned out, they were going to be without fire for good. They would not be warm like this again, and they wouldn’t be able to escape from the barn either. They were doomed to freeze inside of the barn. 

Just like Tommy said: they were stuck. 

After minutes of awkward silence between the two of them, Tommy glanced at Stella’s injured hand, and examined it with his eyes. “How’s it feel?” He asked.

“What?” 

“Your fingers.” Tommy said. 

“Oh. Fine.” Stella said simply.

“Can I see them?” Tommy asked.

“I don’t think they’re healed up yet.” 

“No, I meant…just give me the hand.” He demanded.

Stella hesitantly extended her bruised hand outward, and Tommy took it into his own. He supported her hand with the palm of his left arm, and ran his free hand across the bandages that were wrapped around her fingers. “Does that hurt?” He asked. Stella nodded, and let out a smooth breath. “It’s not as bad as it was yesterday.” 

“But it still hurts?” Tommy asked. 

“Uh huh.” 

Tommy held Stella’s injured hand in his own for a few more moments before he let it go, and Stella was able to reclaim it. She rubbed her fingers carefully, and looked back into the dying flame. 

The dying flame was their life; it resembled the amount of time that they had left. When the flame was out, they would be gone too. Forever plunged into darkness, and fated to die of hypothermia in their sleep. The thought should have terrified Stella, but it didn’t. 

Stella looked at Tommy’s bat, and imagined beating herself over the head with it. Maybe Tommy could do it for her. It would be quicker than suffering from the harsh, blistering cold. As she continued to look at the bat, she started to get an idea. It was an idea to keep them going, for a little while at least, and Stella was completely okay with it. She had a feeling that Tommy wouldn’t be. 

“What if we burned that?” Stella asked. Tommy looked at her, confused. “The bat.” She said. 

Tommy huffed out a laugh, and remained unmoving. “You’re dreaming.” 

She knew it; Tommy wasn’t going to give up his weapon that easily. “It could burn through the night, and m-maybe in the morning, someone could find us and-“

“You’re not burning my bat.” Tommy snapped. “End of story.”

Stella felt a major shift in her emotional state. She had a way to solve a problem, to – once again – save Tommy’s life, and he was about to throw all of that idealism out of the window. “Tommy, you’re not even listening to me.”

“What do you think ‘these’ are for?” Tommy asked, gesturing to both of his ears. “They work just fine, and I said my piece.”

“If we burn that, we might actually make it out of this alive.” Stella began. “It’s a bat, you can always buy another bat.” 

“It’s my bat, and I say it stays right here.” Tommy proclaimed. 

“So you’d rather let yourself freeze to death over getting rid of that thing?” Stella pressed. “You’re damn right I would.” Tommy slurred, losing all of the joyful insight that he had embodied during the game.   
“I’d let you die too.” 

Out of everything that Tommy could have said to her, that was the one thing that she did not expect to hear. That single sentence had crossed the line. “You pathetic bastard.” Stella whispered. Tommy snarked and shook his head, turning his gaze back to the fire and ignoring Stella’s stare of rage. 

“Give me the bat.” Stella demanded, getting up onto her feet.

“Sit down.” Tommy demanded, looking up at the girl.

“Give me the bat, or I’m gonna take it myself.” Stella said sternly. “I’m done playing games with you, Tommy.” 

“This isn’t a game.” Tommy argued, slowly sitting up, and letting the dying flame reflect in his eyes. “If you touch her, I’m going to have to kill you.” 

Stella blinked. “’Her’?” She asked. Tommy’s face fell, and it was replaced by the same rage that Stella had seen in him the night that he had attacked her. “It.” He said. “If you touch it.”

Stella continued. “Give it to me, now!” 

Tommy jumped to his feet, and shoved Stella backwards with a push to the chest. “Come and take it from me, cowgirl.” He said, without a sign of a smirk. 

“I told you not to touch me!” Stella barked! “And I’m telling you to back the hell off. Looks like we’re both bad listeners.” Tommy replied.   
Stella lowered her gaze, and decided that she was going to try and go against Tommy Milner. This was the ultimate test: Who was really in charge? 

Stella instinctively dashed toward the baseball bat ahead of her, but as Tommy moved to block her, she juked away from him, and bolted toward the right of him instead. Tommy stumbled away from Stella and the Bat, but was quick enough to get to it before she could do any damage. Stella grabbed the bat by the handle, but Tommy had kicked it before she could pick it up. It rolled across the barn, and clattered hopelessly into the darkness. 

“Tommy!” Stella screamed, starting to follow the bat’s trail. 

Tommy’s arms came over Stella’s head, and pressed themselves into the base of her neck. He pulled back hard, trapping her against his own body, while choking her at the same time. “Don’t…touch…it!” He hissed! Stella struggled against his hold, but she wasn’t strong enough to move his arms away from her body. 

Instead, she threw her elbow backwards into his gut, incapacitating him while she bolted away! She ran toward the dark section of the barn, eager to find the bat and keep the fire going. 

When Tommy looked up, Stella had disappeared into the dark, and he couldn’t tell where she had gone. 

“Nicholls!” He shouted! “Get back here! This isn’t…” He started, but he was cut off by the return of Stella herself. She walked out of the darkness with his baseball bat in her hand. 

"Stella, put it down.” Tommy demanded. “I’m not playing with you, put it down!” 

“We NEED to keep the fire lit!” Stella argued! “There is nothing else for us to burn."

“We can find something. Just drop, the, bat.” Tommy said, lowering his voice. “I swear to you…I’ll let this go…I’ll let all of it go...everything…if you just…just give me the bat.” He pleaded. 

Stella glared angrily at Tommy, and rose the bat horizontally over her raised knee.

“NICHOLLS!” Tommy shouted! “Don’t you dare.” 

With one swift motion, Stella brought the center of the bat down onto the base of her kneecap. The bat struck hard, and it split into two halves.

Tommy lunged at Stella with a fury that she had only seen in the darkest of nightmares. Before she could react, she felt hands around her throat, and she was suddenly slammed up against the barn doors.   
Tommy’s hands clasped around her throat as tightly as they could. Tommy’s face was red with unspeakable rage, his eyes were bugged out, and every vein that was in his head was plainly visible to the naked eye. “I TOLD YOU!” Tommy said, spitting as he spoke! Stella pushed back against Tommy’s body, but she didn’t even close to pushing him away from her. Stella’s eyes were wide with terror as she met Tommy’s. He stared at her with immense hatred, one that you could only see in a potential murderers’ eyes. Stella tried to speak, but Tommy’s hands were in the way of her words. “I TOLD YOU!” Tommy spit again!

Stella’s eyes rolled back into her head, and her vision started to cloud up. Her mind was shutting down; Tommy was making sure of that. “GOD! YOU!” He screamed! His eyes saw that Stella’s were rolled back, and when he finally processed the fact that he was literally inflicting fatal damage onto her, he started to stop. Somewhere, deep down inside of him, he knew the consequences of what he was doing. 

In all truth, he did not want Stella Nichols to be dead.

Tommy released Stella from his grip, and she fell to the bottom of the barn doors, barely awake. Her body struggled for air, and she coughed violently onto the floor. 

Meanwhile, Tommy was glaring down at the two broken halves of his baseball bat that were laying on the floor of the barn. He was convulsively gasping, staring dreadfully at the head of his broken bat. He leaned down, and picked up the one piece. He brought it back up with him, and turned it over. He looked down at the bat, and a single tear fell out of his eye. “God...” He whispered, bringing the bat back up to his face. “AGH!” He barked, bringing the piece back, and throwing it across the dark barn. 

Stella lay on the floor, still conscious, but in severe pain. Her neck burned, inside and out, and the back of her head was on fire once again. She was encompassed in the bitter cold, and she could hear see   
Tommy in the back of the barn, going beserk.

“AGH!” Stella heard Tommy scream. More crashes, and more sounds of wood smashing apart. “IT’S YOUR FAULT!” 

Stella stayed where she was, fearful of being attacked, and possibly truly killed by the rage that had taken control of Tommy Milner. Even in his worst days at school, she had NEVER seen Tommy act out like this. This was a side of him that she wishes that she would never see again. Tommy’s rampage continued on for an unspecified amount of time. While he destroyed, and ranted deliriously, Stella remained on the floor in front of the barn doors. She was patiently and anxiously waiting for Tommy to settle down, and when he finally managed to do so, Stella was unsure of how much time had passed. Stella began to believe that saving Tommy was a mistake. She heard footsteps making their way over to the dark corner where Tommy had spent the majority of his nights, and that was the last of him for the day. She waited. For how long, nobody knew. She waited for it to have been long enough for Tommy to have fallen asleep. If he was still awake, she didn’t know about it. She was gambling with her life here. 

As soon as Stella believed that the coast was clear, she began to crawl across the floor of the barn, toward where she had left the two pieces of the baseball bat. She reached out with her hands, and found the lower half: the part with the handle. She took it, and made her way over to the fire pit in the back of the barn. 

The dying flame finally went out; the barn was pitch dark.

She remembered that Tommy had left his lighter sitting on one of the Cinder Blocks that surrounded the pit. She felt over the tops of the blocks, and was finally able to find the lighter. She flicked it on, and lit the bottom of the baseball handle on fire. She dropped the handle into the pit, and contently watched the fire spread to the rest of the bat. She remained by the fire for a short while, letting her body warm up before she had decided to go searching for the spare piece. 

When she felt well enough, Stella used the orange light to her advantage and had decided to seek out the remaining half of the bat – the top half. She looked around the barn, but was unable to find the piece anywhere. Where had it gone? Did Tommy destroy it?

Then, a horrifying thought occurred to Stella. The piece was still with Tommy – he had taken it with him back to his corner. 

She didn’t need the piece right now – she had fire started already, and it was warm enough for her to stay beside the fire without any trouble. She returned to the fire pit, and sat dreadfully beside the flames. She peered into them, and had decided to try and fight off sleep. She was scared to sleep; she didn’t want to be unconscious if Tommy Milner had decided to rampage again. Instead of sleeping, she kept her eyes open, staring emptily into the fire.

She thought of Chuck. Auggie. Her dad. Even Tommy’s goons. Where were they? Why hadn’t they come to rescue her and Tommy by now? Did they die out in the storm? Did the rest of Mill Valley die in the storm? It didn’t make sense that nobody had shown up by now. Stella was really worried. 

She kept herself up with these thoughts, and she instinctively reached into her pocket. She pulled out nothing: she had forgotten that Tommy had destroyed her radio. Regardless, she put both of her hands back into her pockets, and started to speak to herself:

“I don’t think I’m going to be alive tomorrow. He’s probably going to do something by sunrise, and…I just don’t think I’m going to make it. I’m cold, hungry, and nobody came to save us. It’s horrible…and I don’t even know if my friends are alive either…I…I’ve been fighting to stay, and I’ve tried my hardest to stay strong. Even when it gets hard…but…but…I can’t do it anymore…I can’t be strong right now…I’m weak…and I feel like...this…this is probably going to be the last time I ever talk to you. I don’t have anything else to say. I hope you’re okay. I love you.”


	11. Early

It was 5:30 in the morning, and Chuck was wide awake. He had been sitting in front of the shop’s boarded up windows for the past 3 days, listening intensely to the storm and wondering if it was truly starting to die down out there. During the 2nd night, be was absolutely sure that the winds were fading away. By the 3rd night, he was absolutely certain that it was safe. Now, the sun was on its way to rising, and Chuck was wide awake. He was ready to save his friend. 

“What’re ya doin, son?” a manly voice asked from the shadows of the store.

“I’m on watch.” Chuck replied without turning around to look at him. 

“It’s the ass crack of dawn.” Frederick replied. “You should be asleep.” 

“I can’t sleep, man.” Chuck said. “I’m worried about my friend.”

“I understand.” Frederick said, approaching the boarded-up windows, and staring at them alongside Chuck. “I wonder if my family is okay out there, too. You think the storm’s done a-brewin?” 

“I dunno.” Chuck answered honestly. “It sounds quiet. You wanna check it out?” 

“I dunno.” Frederick answered honestly. “Helluva risk. Lettin the storm in, and all. Could freeze us all up.” 

Chuck made a face – like he had to use the bathroom very badly – and looked back at the boarded-up windows with desperation. “Can you please just help me take them down? I have to know.”

Frederick glanced at Chuck for a while, internally debating with his moral compass, before nodding in agreement. Together, Chuck and Frederick tore a big board away from the large glass windows, and placed it gently on the floor of the store.

They both glanced through the glass, examining what they were seeing outside. Frederick gasped, and place both of his hands on his hips. “Well, I’ll be damned.” He breathed.  
Chuck, after being dumbfounded for a few moments, broke out into a grin. “Auggie!” He called out! “AUGGIE! Get your lazy ass up!” He shouted, running away from the front of the store and heading toward the back! 

Frederick shook his head with a smile, and continued to look through the glass windows. 

Chuck burst through the back doors of the shop, running into the dry storage and approaching the cot of sleeping bags that contained the shop inhabitants! “Auggie! Au-au-au-giiiie!” Chuck whined, shaking the sleeping bag with his friend inside of it! 

“Huh?” Auggie said groggily. He squinted his eyes, and looked up at the towering Chuck. “What are you doing?” He asked.

“We’re gonna go find Stella.” Chuck said with a grin.


	12. The Last Night

Stella hadn’t realized that she had fallen asleep until she was jolted awake by the sound of something hitting the floor. Perhaps she had imagined it; she was malnourished, and slightly sleep deprived. She got a bare of her surroundings; she was still in the barn, and the fire was extinguished. Tommy’s bottom half of the bat was nearly burned away, and the warmth was gone for now. The sun hadn’t come up yet, so Stella was unsure of what time it was. 

Stella’s stomach ached horribly, and her throat throbbed excruciatingly. She groaned and massaged her neck, attempting to calm the pain. She was surprised that she was still here; still alive. By sheer luck, she was given an opportunity to keep going on. She was to live another day. 

She immediately thought about Tommy, and what might have happened to him. As far as she knew, he was still sulking in his corner of the barn. She remembered that he also might have the last piece of the baseball bat that she had snapped in half. That was the only burnable thing left in the barn; the only source of heat in a world full of cold. Without hesitation, she had decided that she needed to get the piece, and burn it in the fire pit. On the first day that they arrived here, he had told her to never come back to his corner of the barn. 

But times have changed; she had to go into Tommy’s corner. 

Stella clumsily felt around for his lighter. She found it beside her leg, and flicked it a few times before it was finally able to light. It was a bad use for light in the dark, but at least she could faintly see in front of her, as opposed to seeing nothing at all. 

Stella wobbled onto her feet, and held the lighter out in front of her. She made her way toward Tommy’s corner. The floorboards were empty, barren, and full of dust. In the dust, she could make out various marks, and boot prints which Tommy must have undoubtedly made. 

As she approached the corner of the barn, she approached the back of Tommy’s body. He was facing away from her, toward the wall of the barn, and she could see that he held something in his arms. She lowered the lighter to get a better look, and noticed that he was embracing the other piece of the bat. 

What she also noticed was what appeared to be an engraving on the very top of the bat. It read:

LM TM 

Stella wondered about it again. What did that mean? Regardless, Stella had to prepare herself for what was about to happen next. 

“What?” Tommy croaked. It wasn’t a confused ‘What’, it was a ‘What do you want’ ‘What’. 

Stella didn’t say anything. 

“What do you want?” Tommy repeated, still facing toward the wall of the barn. 

“I want a fire.” Stella replied, holding the lighter beneath her chest. 

“Mm.” Tommy groaned. “Oh, well.” 

“We’re gonna die if we don’t, Tommy.” 

“Good.” He said.

“Tommy.” Stella replied, dumbfounded. “I didn’t mean to wake you up, I just needed…” she started, but she stopped herself short. She was hoping that Tommy would catch on.

“Don’t.” Tommy said through a cracked voice. Stella exhaled, and thought about what she could do to convince Tommy to give her the bat. She looked at it again, and saw the letters again.

LM TM

Suddenly, Stella had an idea. “Tommy? What is this?” She asked, pointing to the engraving that lay on top of the bat.

Tommy followed her finger, and when he saw the engraving for himself, he closed his eyes, and gripped the piece of the bat even more tightly. His fingers were splintered from touching the wood. 

“Tommy, look at me.” Stella said. 

Tommy opened his eyes, and looked further at the wall of the barn. He didn’t say anything. He sniffled, and Stella followed his gaze. Against the wall of the barn, Stella could see something that had been handmade, and placed in the floor of the barn. Before she could see what it was, Tommy sat up – obscuring her view – and turned to face her. 

His skin was sunken, his eyes were bloodshot, and heavy, dark bags rested under his cheeks. He might have been crying. “Leave.” Tommy croaked.

“No.” Stella replied defiantly. 

Tommy wrapped his hand around the top half of his broken baseball bat, and brought it over his head. Stella flinched and prepared herself to be struck across the face, or maybe even the top of her skull. 

But Tommy didn’t do anything. He was internally fighting with something that Stella wasn’t aware of, and whatever it was, it won. Tommy dropped the piece of his baseball bat, and collapsed on the floor of the barn. He let out an exasperated sigh, and closed his eyes. “Crap.” He whispered.

“Tommy, what’s going on with you?” Stella started. She sat on the floor a few feet away from him, and brought her knees up to her chest. “You act like there’s a ghost in here.”

“Stop.” Tommy said quietly. “There’s nothing going on with me, other than the fact that I’ve been stuck in here with you. It’s horrible.” 

“Well, don’t hold back.” Stella replied, slightly hurt.

Tommy opened his mouth to say something, but shook his head and silently laughed to himself. “This is stupid…this is so, so stupid. Why…why out of all of the places we could have been stuck, it had to be in this dump?” 

Stella was confused. “It could have been worse.” 

“Yeah, we could’ve been stuck at your place.” Tommy said. 

Stella barely smirked. “Good one.” Her sarcasm said.

“Jesus, I hated this place.” Tommy said.

Stella was confused. “What?” She asked. Tommy gulped, and continued to stare at the dark ceiling of the barn. He groaned occasionally, but he didn’t answer the girl. Stella bit her lip, and was grateful that her patience had come back to her. “Have you been here before?” She asked.

“Mmmn.” Tommy groaned. That was short for ‘I don’t know’. 

“Come on.” Stella said. “Do you know what this place is?” 

“No.” Tommy said abruptly. “I just…” He started, but never finished. Stella knew that he wasn’t telling the truth, but she didn’t want to push him to say anything. Suddenly, a weight had been lifted off of her chest. For the first time since she’d known him, she was actually beginning to know him; how he ticked, and how to pry him open. Tommy obviously had a few layers, and Stella had been using the wrong tool to get them open all along. The tool that was working was one that Stella could definitely use: Patience.

“Why don’t you wanna get rid of the bat?” Stella asked calmly. Tommy was quiet for a long while after that, but he finally replied to her. “It’s a good bat.”

“Why can’t you just buy another bat? After this is over?” Stella asked. 

“We’ll die by the time it’s over.” Tommy said. 

Stella started to tell Tommy that they would survive if they would just try and burn the head of the bat, but she stopped herself, and decided to ask another question. “Do you want to die?”

“What is this, 21 questions?” Tommy replied. “Just shut up. Let me sleep.” 

Stella looked at the head of the bat again, and read the inscription again:

LM TM

She had to know what it was. If she was really going to die in the barn tonight, she wanted to know what those 4 letters meant. “What’s L-M-T-M?” Stella asked. 

“Stop looking at it.” Tommy said. 

“I’ve been seeing it for days. Come on…you know that I love a good mystery.” Stella said.

“It’s not a…” Tommy started, before sighing and putting a meaty hand over his mouth. “…you’re such a pain in the ass.” 

“So you’ve told me.” Stella said. “Come on. If it’s a girlfriend, I won’t tell the school.” Stella playfully said. 

Tommy didn’t laugh. He opened his eyes, and blinked. He stared at the ceiling, silently debating within himself. It seemed like he wanted to keep quiet, to handle his own demons, mainly because it gave him a sense of pride. He could fix anything, he could control anything, and he could survive without anybodies help. He didn't need to open up; he could handle himself. But, as it often goes, but the demons within were struggling to get out. They were destroying everything inside for as long as they remained, and unless Tommy opened that door to let them out, they would end up destroying him too. Stella knew exactly how they felt. 

Tommy looked over at Stella, and when they locked eyes, it was as if they were speaking to each other through the use of telepathy. They knew what the other was thinking, somehow. Stella didn’t need to tell Tommy what his problem was; he already knew. And with that in mind, Tommy heaved a big sigh once again, and pursed his lips back.


	13. October 1961

“Thomas, can you go out into the barn and tell your sister that supper is almost ready?” Mrs. Milner asked. 

“Yes, ma’am.” Tommy replied. He left the kitchen, and walked out of the front doors of the farmhouse. Mrs. Milner shook her head, and continued to wash the dishes in the kitchen sink. “The nerve…” she mumbled.

Outside, Tommy jogged his way down the slopes of his front yard, and ran directly into the cornfield ahead. He followed the path straight down, using his arms to block out the sun from his eyes. Once he’d left the cornfield, he headed in the direction of the tall, wooden barn at the end of the road. The barn had been freshly built only 5 years ago by Tommy’s father himself (which Tommy partly helped), and the little boy looked up at the building, and snorted. “Hey!” Tommy called out from the distance. “It’s time to come home!” 

When there was no response from the barn, Tommy sighed and continued on his jog. He approached the front doors of the barn, which were left slightly ajar. This gave Tommy the chills; he’d read all of the scary novels at the library. An open door meant that there was a monster inside, just-a-waitin to come out and grab you. 

“Hello?” Tommy called out more quietly. He pushed opened the doors to the barn, and they creaked on the hinges. Tommy gulped, and nervously entered the barn. It was very dark inside of the barn, and he was afraid of what he might find inside. “Hellooo?” Tommy called. “Momma said to come home.” 

He waited for a response, but there was none. Tommy’s blood ran cold, and he continued a slow pace into the barn, wary of the horse stables that were inside. He approached one of them, and slowly opened the stable door. “You there?” He asked, looking into the stable. 

There was nothing in the stable.

Tommy proceeded to the next stable, and had one foot behind him in case something would jump out at him and he needed to run away. He slowly pushed the door open, and looked inside.

There was nothing in the stable.

He sighed with relief, and proceeded to the third and final stable at the end of the barn. “This ain’t funny!” He said. “I’ll hit you if you jump at me!” 

When he got to the last stable, he closed his eyes, and prepared himself. Instead of opening it slowly, he rose his foot and kicked the door open with force!

There was nothing in the stable.

“Darn it.” Tommy sighed, disappointed that he had not found his sister, but relieved that there was nothing evil in the stable.

“BOO!” shouted a little girl from behind him!

Tommy might as well have jumped out of his skin; he fell clumsily to the floor as the little girl stayed laughing at him. “Hahahaha!” She squealed!

“Darn you!” Tommy shouted! 

“I’m sorry.” She cooed, holding her hands behind her back and swaying her hips back and forth innocently. 

“Where have ya been? Momma wants you home! Did you even do any of your chores?” Tommy asked.

“Yeah. It’s all done.” She said.

“Good.” Tommy said. “Now go home before I tell mom on you.” 

She stood in place and looked at the ground, swaying her hips in slight embarrassment. “Tommy…can you walk with me?” She asked. 

“What?” Tommy replied. “Walk where?” 

“Back home. I don’t like being in the cornfield by myself. Daddy always told me about the crop raiders, and how they like to hide in the fields of the farmers. They take the corn, and they might take you too if they catch you!” She rambled! Tommy rolled his eyes, and exited the stable. “There’s no such thing as crop raiders. Daddy’s just a drunk.” 

“Tommy!” She protested! “Please?” 

Tommy shook his head, and huffed impatiently as he held out his hand. She took Tommy by the hand with a smile, and despite being much shorter than him, dragged him along with furious determination.

The two went through the cornfield and back to their farmhouse. They didn’t see a single farm raider.

At the dinner table, Tommy sat opposite his sister, with his mother at the head of the table. The chair opposite Mrs. Milner was empty. Tommy nibbled at the Liver and Spinach that his mother had worked all day to make, and while he did enjoy her cooking most of the time, liver was not something he could try and explore. “Thomas James Milner, eat your liver.” 

“Yes, ma’am.” Tommy groaned, taking small bites out of the corner of the mystery meat. The little girl at the opposite end of the table began to mimic Tommy; she grimaced as she knawed at the corner of her liver, and Mrs. Milner did not appreciate the attitude. She cleared her throat, and changed the subject. “Are you ready for the big game tomorrow, Thomas?”

“Hm?” Tommy said, distracted by his vain attempt to eat the liver. “Oh…yes, ma’am.” 

“Have you been practicing your swings?” Mrs. Milner asked. 

“Mhm.” Tommy said. “Yesterday, I think I hit the ball straight over the field, ma.” 

“Yes, yes you did. It hit one of the Wolverton’s cows.” Mrs. Milner said. “And I had to pay for a new one.” 

Tommy snorted and stifled his laughter with a hand over his mouth, which in turn caused his sister to giggle along with him. “Oh no!” She said. 

Mrs. Milner wrinkled her face, and wiped her lips with a handkerchief. “Let’s see if it’s so funny when it’s your paycheck instead.”

“Well.” Tommy said through more laughter. “Good thing I don’t have one yet.” 

“That’ll change.” Mrs. Milner said. “And you’ll learn what it’s like to handle responsibility like-“ 

“What, like dad?” Tommy replied. 

Mrs. Milner straightened up, and her eyes narrowed at her son from across the table. “Excuse me?” 

“Dad doesn’t pay the mortgage. You do. He pays for the beer, and the TV so that he can watch the big games. That’s all he does, so I don’t think you’re thinking of the right role model for me.” Tommy said without missing a beat. 

If you were anybody other than the innocent minds of Tommy Milner and his little sister, you could see that Mrs. Milner was trying her darndest to conceal a smile. She knew that Tommy had just spilled the truth, but she couldn’t let him know that. “I want you to take that back, right now.” She said in a slightly worried tone. Tommy shook his head sarcastically, and subconsciously bit into the liver, which he spit out immediately. His little sister giggled again, and looked down to hide her glee from her mother. Mrs. Milner spoke up: “Your father does more for this family than you will ever know. I know it’s hard to see that, because you’re just a little boy, but you need to get it through your head that you are-“

“I’m not a little boy.” Tommy said, twirling his fork. 

Mrs. Milner raised an eyebrow, and clenched her fists. “You are not the adult, Thomas Milner. You do not take care of this farm, you do not work to support your family, and you certainly don’t exhibit any altruistic abilities. If only-“

“Dad doesn’t either.” Tommy interrupted. 

“DO not! Interupt me, Thomas!” Mrs. Milner shouted! “I have half a mind to force that liver down your throat if you so much as throw an eyeball in my direction again. Do you understand me?” she said. Tommy turned to look at Mrs. Milner, and looked her dead in the eye. He put his fork down beside his plate, and scooted his chair back before standing up, and starting to leave the table. “Thomas!” Mrs. Milner called out, but he continued to walk.

When Tommy got into the doorway, he smacked into something big and bouncy that had suddenly appeared. Tommy looked upward, and was met by the face of his balding, mustached father. They looked at each other for a brief mere moment before Mr. Milner grabbed Tommy by the shoulders, and gestured him back toward the table. “Why are you getting up? You haven’t finished your food.” Mr. Milner asked.

Tommy made his way back to the table, and stared at his full plate, unable to come up with a sudden explanation. “I, um…I wasn’t hungry.” He said. 

Mr. Milner stared at the back of Tommy’s head for another few more moments, chewing his bottom lip and nodding very subtly to himself. “Sit down.”

“Yes, sir.” Tommy said, pulling out his chair and quickly sitting in his seat. 

Mrs. Milner and her daughter stared uncomfortably at their food, trying to avoid eye contact with the man beside them. “Evening, honey.” The man said, making his way over to his wife’s side and giving her a neat kiss on the top of her head. “Evening, dear.” Mrs. Milner said. Tommy’s sister looked to her big brother to see if he knew what to do, but Tommy was picking at his spinach with his fork. 

“So.” Mr. Milner said as he sat down in the empty chair at the end of the table, across from Mrs. Milner. “We need to talk.” 

“Oh?” Mrs. Milner said, looking up from her plate. “What’s the matter, dear?” 

“Well. Jamestown’s Major just passed another bill. They’re raising more taxes on the crops that they get, and that…that son of a bitch, Michael. He’s got it out for this town in particular.” 

“Why?” Mrs. Milner asked. 

“The man’s great uncle was poisoned, apparently. By the Sarah girl from seventy years ago. Jesus, you’d think we were the ones holding the bottle of Hemlock, huh?” Mr. Milner said, digging into his Liver, Spinach, and Bread.

Mrs. Milner chuckled on cue, and timidly worked on her own dinner. “Hmhm.” She said.

“He’s gonna be taking ten percent more of what we’re already selling. Which means we’re losing money.” He continued. “So you need to take a look at our budget. See what you can do, while I think of how   
I’m gonna get him for this.” He said. 

“Yes, sir.” Mrs. Milner said. 

Tommy blinked, and chewed on some of his spinach before his father could start to berate him about it. He thought about the situation that his father had just described; the farm losing money, and his mother having to overlook the entire budget by herself to figure out what needs to be done. “Can I help?” Tommy asked. 

Mr. Milner looked up from his plate, and beamed at his son. “That’s very manly of you, son. But I asked your mother to do it.” He said, pointing at the woman with his knife. 

“I know.” Tommy said. “But why can’t I help?” 

Mrs. Milner chewed faster, and Tommy’s sister looked down at her plate in silence; not eating, not focusing. Mr. Milner cleared his throat, and began to cut his liver up with his knife. “How was school today, kids?” He asked.

“Good.” Tommy’s sister chirped. 

“Fine.” Tommy said, eating some more of the spinach. “Scott said he was going help me get ready for batting tomorrow. He said my arm is kind of weak, and then he took my bat, so I-“

“Did you show him that your arm worked just fine?” Mr. Milner interrupted without looking up from his plate. 

Tommy stopped, and thought about it. “No…I mean, I told him that he was wrong but, I mean I didn’t-“

“Tom.” Mr. Milner said, taking a breath and staring ahead for a few moments before he turned to his son. “Did you show him that your arm worked just fine?” He said with a raised voice. 

“No.” Tommy said.

Mr. Milner nodded, and resumed cutting the rest of his liver up. “Well, that’s gonna have to change.” He said, finally getting into the first piece of his liver. 

“What do you mean?” Tommy asked. 

“Tom.” Mr. Milner said again, letting his knife slap loudly against his own dinner plate as he breathed again. “You don’t let somebody tell you that you can’t do something. Because then you won’t be able to do it. That’s what I mean.” He said. 

Tommy nodded quickly, and forced himself to take a bite out of the liver that his mother had fixed. 

Mr. Milner continued to stare at Tommy, even as the boy was focusing on his dinner. “So, let me ask you a question.” He said, wiping his mouth with a rag, and folding it in his lap. “Say, that you’re at work, all day. You’re busting ass, making deals, and talking clients into buying your food. Right?”

Tommy nodded, and looked back up at his father. “Mhm?”

“And…then, when you get home…” Mr. Milner continued, pushing his chair away from the dinner table. “One of your kids starts to tell your wife that you don’t really do much, despite all of the hard work that you put in on that day to keep them fed, warm, and housed.” He continued, standing up from his seat at the table. 

The remaining 3 family members tensed up, and Tommy put his hands on his knees. He anxiously rubbed them as Mr. Milner began to make his way over to him, chewing on his bottom lip as he walked.

“Honey.“ Mrs. Milner started.

Mr. Milner continued to walk, and his big figure was suddenly standing right next to Tommy, who was still sitting in his chair. Tommy twirled with his spinach, and stubbornly ignored the man who was towering over him. “Look at me.” Mr. Milner commanded. 

Tommy took a moment to comply, but he looked up at his father, who was brooding down at the boy with a tense aggression. They had a stare down for what seemed like hours, until Mr. Milner finally spoke. “You don’t let somebody tell you that you can’t do something.” Mr. Milner said. Tommy gulped, and looked away from his father for a split second; a split second that caused his father to shoot his hand out, and grab his chin. The man forced his son to look up and at his face, and Tommy flinched where he sat. 

Mr. Milner looked at his daughter; her eyes were wide open, and her skin was completely flushed. She was terrified. “Go to your room. I don’t want to see you for the rest of the night.” He said. She immediately left the table, and ran out of the dining room. Breathing quickly, she jumped up the staircase and into her room, closing the door behind her and going to her hiding spot that was under the bed. She got onto her hands and knees, and slid silently into the darkness. 

She positioned herself behind a few doll boxes that she had put under her bed, and stayed as still as she possibly could. Then, it started.

There was yelling, mostly from her father. She could hear her brother, too. They yelled, and there was smashing involved. She didn’t really hear much from her mother, but that was expected of her. Being under the bed, against the floor, was both good and bad for the little girl. It was good because she was hidden from anybody, and everybody. They wouldn’t look under the bed, and past all the clutter to find her. The bad part was that it was very easy for her to hear about what was happening downstairs. 

The ruckus went on for about an hour and a half. An hour and a half of crying, darkness, violence and pain. After that, it all stopped. The last thing that she heard was the sound of the back-door slamming shut. It was quiet in the house after all. 

She crawled out from under her bed, and curled up on top of it. She brought the blanket over her body, and hugged her small teddy bear that was lying next to her. She closed her eyes and tried to sleep, but she couldn’t. She thought about her family. She thought about her brother, who had earned himself a pretty nasty beating from her father. She wondered if Tommy was proud of himself. He was a brave boy by nature; he loved to have girlfriends, and go explore the woods behind the farm. She wished that she could be like him. Maybe she could have stopped her dad from hitting him and he his hero! 

Maybe. 

Usually, whenever there were fights like this in the family, the victim would be kicked out of the house and told to go sleep in the barn. Mrs. Milner had experienced this only once, and never again. Tommy spent nights out in the barn on a regular occasion. She has never spent a night out in the barn. Not before tonight.

She thought about how she acted in comparison to her brother: she was shy, yet mischievous. She liked to spend time with her brother, because he was really the only friend she had. Everybody at school was still worried about the negros in the school, but she didn’t care. Her schoolmates had decided to compare her to the negros without a reason, so she spent a lot of time alone during recess. At home,   
Tommy was her best friend. 

She had decided that she wanted to be like her brother after all. 

She closed the back door behind her very slowly and quietly, slipping out of the house in her pajamas, and orange slippers. She walked carefully into the night, approaching the entrance to the cornfield and taking a deep breath. The field was rusting with the light wind, and the moonlight was shining. 

She remembered what Tommy had said earlier in the day; ‘There’s no such thing as crop raiders.’ 

She took a big breath, and shakily started to walk into the cornfield. “I can be brave, I can be brave, I can be brave, I can be brave…” 

She repeated this to herself throughout the entire field. She imagined her father roaming somewhere within the fields, and she got even more scared. The corn rustled loudly, spooking the girl. “I can be brave.” She said. To help her nerves, she closed her eyes as she walked through the cornfield. Suddenly, she heard a rustle from somewhere up ahead. It was an unnatural rustle, as if somebody was maneuvering through the corn alongside her. She tried to ignore it, and fought the rising thumps of her racing heart. “I can be brave; I can be brave.” 

The distant rustles were getting closer, and closer. She imagined her father nearby, and her eyes crinkled with worry. Then, she imagined a crop raider nearby, and her heart sped up even quicker. Her head started to swim with nausea, and her mouth started to dry. “I can be…brave…” She whispered. 

Somebody bumped into her, and she screamed as loudly as she could. “AHHHH!” 

She opened her eyes and jumped backwards, and was met with a body that was hanging on a wooden post. The body was made out of straw, and it looked like a man. It’s empty and featureless head glared down at her, as if he was talking to her. It was a scarecrow; the scarecrow that her mother was starting to put together. It didn’t have a name, but it looked very scary without any clothing, or facial features. 

She whimpered, and began to run through the cornfield. Eventually, she emerged out of the opposite end of the cornfield without a scratch on her. She exhaled with relief, and ran toward the dark barn that Tommy had found her in earlier in the day. 

She pushed open the doors to the barn, and poked her head into the building. “Tommy?” She whispered.

Something stirred inside of the barn, and a shadow popped up out of one of the stables. It looked at her, and she gasped with shock. She gripped the edge of the door with both hands, and shakily continued to look at the shadow. 

Crop Raider.

“What are you doing here?” The shadow hissed.

Tommy. 

“Tommy!” She quietly cried with excitement. She ran into the barn, and wrapped both of her arms around the older boy. “Get off me!” Tommy ordered, pushing his sister away. “Why are you here?”   
She hesitated to answer. She looked at the floor of the barn, and held both of her hands together. “I dunno.” She said quietly.

“Yeah, you do.” Tommy said. “You shouldn’t be in here.” 

“Neither should you.” She said, looking back up at her brother. “Are you okay?” 

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Tommy asked, crossing his arms over his chest. “This is only the three-hundreth time I spent the night in here. I might as well live here.” 

“You live in the house.” She said.

“I’m not allowed back in the house.” Tommy replied. 

“Hmph.” She said, putting her hands on her hips and looking into space as she thought about how to solve the problem that they were facing. “You can sneak in.” 

“No.” Tommy said. “I’m already in enough trouble. And you’re not about to get in trouble either, so just go home!” Tommy said, putting a hand on her shoulders and directing her toward the barn’s exit. 

“Tommy, no!” She said, digging her feet into the floorboards and stopping him from moving her. “I want to be with you.” 

“Go. Home.” Tommy commanded. “Or I’ll tell momma that you were out here.”

She wanted to listen to him; she wanted to go back to her house, and crawl into her comfortable, warm bed. But she had already been there, and when she was, she wanted to come to the barn and find her brother. She wanted to be brave. “I said no!” She said! “I want to stay here with you, Tommy!” Tommy let go of his sister and looked down at her as she turned around, and crossed her own arms over her own chest. “I’m staying.” She declared. 

Tommy breathed impatiently, and stared into the distance as he couldn’t believe what was happening. He thought about arguing some more with her, but untalentedly decided that he had engaged in enough arguing for the day. “Fine. But if you get in trouble, it’s not my fault.” He said. 

She smiled and walked with Tommy toward the stable where he had set up camp. He had made a hay blanket on the floor, and was using a large pile of cotton for a pillow. “Oh.” His sister said, solemnly saddened. “You’re lucky that you haven’t been banished yet.” Tommy said. “You could never last out here like I have.” 

She frowned as he began to gather his blanket, slipping back under it and bringing it up to his neck. As she started to go in after him, he stopped her with his outstretched foot. “Uh uh. You sleep in the next stall.” He said. 

“What? Why?” She whined. 

“Because I said so.” Tommy said. 

She rubbed one arm with her free hand, and looked down at his makeshift sleeping bag with a tiny amount of regret. Then, she slowly left the stable and closed the door behind her. Tommy muttered to himself and laid his head on the cotton below him. He closed his eyes and hoped that he would fall asleep real soon. He wanted to wake up, grab his old, crusty bat that his dad forced him to play with (even though it wasn’t any good and was one swing away from a bisection), and play the game against the Marshall Migrates in the afternoon. Yeah. That would be a great day. He loved to play baseball; even more than he loved his girlfriend. She was a little lame, she didn’t want to kiss before marriage, and she loved to read books all of the time.

Why would he ever fall for a nerd like that? Not in a million years.

Tommy tried to sleep. Tried, tried, tried. He thought about everything, he thought about nothing, and he thought about his father. His poor excuse of a father. His poor excuse of a mother. His poor excuse of a- 

Tommy’s eyes flicked open, and he retracted that horrible thought. As annoying as his sister was, she wasn’t like their parents. She wasn’t being shaped in their image, like Tommy was. Although she was still susceptible to a guardian, she was still pure and untouched. In a way, that’s what Tommy loved the most about her. She wasn’t a bitch, or a sleaze. She was a friend.

“Get over here.” He said to nobody in particular. 

In seconds, the pitter-patter of slippers echoed through the barn, and she shot through the stable doors and straight into the hay blanket that Tommy had made. She was smiling excitedly, and cuddled close to her brother’s backside. She encompassed them in the hay blanket, and rested her forehead on the slightly less-than-comfortable cotton pillow. 

They laid in silence for a few minutes. It wasn’t awkward, but it was definitely meaningful to both of them. “I went through the cornfield, you know.” She whispered.

“Yeah?” Tommy asked.

“Yeah.” She said. “I saw the scarecrow that Mommy is making, but that’s all…no crop raiders or nuthin’. You were right about them…they were fake.” She said proudly. 

“What’d I tell you?” Tommy said with a smile. “You gotta learn to trust your big brother.” 

“I know.” She said, closing her eyes. “You made me brave today.” 

Tommy didn’t say anything. He felt his heart warm up inside, but he was slightly too proud to show it. Instead, he smiled to himself, and closed his eyes. Somehow, he could finally sleep.

Tommy felt a light smack on his face, and his eyes shot open before he could even process that he had been asleep. Everything was blurry for a second – but then it all came into focus. He looked up, and he saw her. She had slapped him awake. “What?” He asked rudely. 

“I wanna show you something!” She cried, grabbing Tommy’s hand and trying to pull him up. She almost tripped over her own two feet, but Tommy caught her before she could. “What are you talking about?” He asked. “What time is it?”

“Morning time! Now come on!” She chirped! She grabbed his arm with both of her hands, and pulled hard. “Hey!” He said as she finally managed to get him moving! They both bolted out of the barn, and into the sun filled forest behind it.

“Where are we going?” Tommy asked. 

“You’ll see!” She shrilled! 

They ran together through the trees, with the dawn of the sun hitting their faces. They stopped on a path that ran through the trees. “Look!” She said, pointing at the base of one of the trees. Tommy looked down, and gaped in awe at what he saw. It was a brand-new baseball bat, in perfect shape. It was almost buried under a pile of leaves, but the head of it stuck out, exposing the tool. “Woah!” Tommy gasped, kneeling down and grabbing it!

“I know, right?” She smiled. 

He looked over the surface of the bat, and was mesmerized by how clean and polished that it looked. “What were you doing out here?” He asked her. 

She looked back down at the ground again, and shrugged. “I’ve seen you do it…I wanted to, too.” 

Tommy sighed and rolled his eyes. “Yeah, but I know what I’m doing out here. Somebody could kidnap you, or you might even get lost out here and die alone, and hungry. Do you get that?”

She twirled her hair, and looked back up at her brother. “Yeah…but look. I wouldn’t have been able to find this bat if I didn't come out here.” She said, smiling and kneeling down beside it. 

“Whatever.” Tommy said. “Don’t ever come out here without me again. Got it?”

“Uh huh.” She said.

“Mkay.” He said. Then, he resumed looking at the sleek bat. “Who do you think left it here?” 

“I don’t know…maybe they didn’t want it anymore.” She said. “But I wanted to show you, because maybe…”

“Maybe what?” He asked.

“Maybe you can use this in your game today.” She said.

“I have a bat.” He said.

“It stinks.” She said.

“I know, but I still have to use it.” He said.

“Why?” She asked.

“Because…” He started, but then he thought of his father. If he found out that his son had abandoned his “pristine” bat, he might give him a worse beating than he had last night. “…because I have to.” Tommy said. 

She looked at him, understanding what he was saying. Normally, she’d just keep quiet and move on with the conversation whenever her abusive father’s commands was brought up. However, she remembered that she wanted to start being like her brother. 

“…He’s gonna be at work all day today, right?” She asked.

“Yeah? Why?” Tommy replied. He picked up the bat, and gently rolled it around in his hands. It was in perfect condition – nobody in their right mind would dare leave it out in the woods like this, for animals and vermin to destroy.

“So, he’s not gonna be at the game.” She said. Normally, that would sound sad – a father not being there for their child – but she had purposely meant for it to sound mischievous. 

Tommy looked up at her, and when they locked eyes, he understood what she was saying. He smiled, and rose his hand up high.

She hi-fived him, and they both grinned. 

Tommy waited in the locker room, stretching his legs up behind his back as the game loomed ever closer. In his hand, he held a bat. The bat was in perfect condition, sleek and shiny. Tommy was ready to do this: He was ready to meet the Marshall Migrates. 

“You ready, little dude?” A slightly older teenager said. His fluffy, black hair was hidden well underneath his pristine white baseball cap. Tommy looked at him, and ignored him. He outstretched his arms, but his grip was broken by the older boy. 

“Nice bat, man.” He said, smirking. 

“Give it back, Scott!” Tommy shouted, leaping upward to try and grab his bat! He jumped as high as he could, but Scott held it out of his reach. “That’s not funny!” 

“I think it is.” Scott said, twirling the bat above his head. “I bet I could hit a homerun with this badboy.” 

“Scott!” Tommy pleaded. “I need that to play, come on!” 

“Woah! This is new, right?” Scott said, examining the bat. “You finally realized you play like trash with that old bat, huh? Well, good for you, buddy. Maybe Liza will actually look at you today.” He said. 

“Give it back, Scott!” Tommy huffed!

“Fine.” Scott said, shoving the bat handle first into Tommy’s stomach. Tommy heaved, and winced as he dropped the bat onto the floor by mistake. It rolled under a few bleachers, and Tommy regretfully crawled onto the dirty locker room floor to retrieve it.

“Dork.” Scott laughed, shaking his head and walking away to smoke cigarettes (or whatever they were) with his much older friends. “Don’t mess this up for us today.” He said before he disappeared.

Tommy finally got a hold of his bat, and hurriedly blew the soot, dust, and markings off of it. He clenched the bat and closed his eyes, feeling the anger rise inside of his chest. He was going to get Scott Wolverton. One day. 

But for now, he had to play ball. 

The first inning was pretty easy. Tommy was finally up to bat, and a boy from the Marshall Migrates was pitching the ball. He eyed Tommy with a ruthless dedication, and held the ball firmly beside his head. Tommy kept his eyes on the ball, careful to avoid intimidation. 

Liza was out there, sitting in the audience somewhere. He couldn’t mess this up.

The boy brought his arm back and threw the ball. It soared through the air, and Tommy swung his brand-new bat. It flew right out of his hands, and crashed into the grass a few feet away. The ball shot right past Tommy, and crashed into the chain-link fence that separated the game from the crowd that had come to watch it. There were laughs and boos emerging from the audience, and Tommy spit on the ground in front of him in retaliation. 

“Strike One!” The referee cried!

“Might wanna keep the bat in your hands when you swing it, Milner!” Scott said from the sideline bench with a hearty laugh. 

Tommy fought every instinct that he had to go and start pounding on the kid, and picked up his new bat. He rubbed off the grass stains, and returned to his spot on the field. He took a deep breath, and focused on the new ball that the pitcher was receiving from the referee. Tommy gripped the bat tightly in his hands, and bent his back along with his knees. His eyes stayed on the ball, and he willed himself to keep it together until the end of the game. 

The pitcher brought his arm back, and chucked the ball at Tommy. He swung his bat, and missed the ball. It hit the fence once again, and more boos emerged from the crowd that was sitting in the hot bleachers just beyond the fence line. Tommy kicked the white base plate that he had been standing on, and cursed at the ground itself. 

“Strike Two!” The referee barked!

The pitcher shook his head, and patted his knees as the referee threw him another baseball. 

Tommy slapped the side of his helmet, and mumbled to himself. “Come on, come on.” 

The pitcher nodded and stood up straight, hands clutched on the baseball. Tommy furrowed his eyebrows and focused on the red lines of the baseball. He locked eyes with the pitcher, and they prepared themselves for the last throw of the inning. Tommy thought that he heard somebody saying his name from the bleachers, but he didn’t have any time to confirm that. 

The pitcher brought his arm back and threw the ball at Tommy’s face. Tommy brought his arms down and swung the bat: it connected perfectly with the ball. In seconds, it was gone. The ball had flown over the field, beyond the fence at the tree line, and disappeared with a sparkle in the sky. 

“HOME RUN!” Somebody called out!

Tommy ran. He dropped the bat, and the crowd roared as he made his way from first base to second base, second base to third, and third base to fourth. He made it all the way around, and picked up his bat as he grinned widely. He looked into the stands and saw her, Liza Tupper. She beamed at him, and he could have sworn that she winked at him too. He smirked at her, and made his way back to the sideline bench to allow the next few members of the team to bat. 

Scott stared in shock. He looked toward where the ball had disappeared and pursed his lips back. He looked at Tommy, and gave him a pat on the back. 

The game continued until sundown. Tommy batted a few more times, and his confidence won the game for the team. Every single swing was a direct hit; only one more home run was made, but the rest of the hits were spectacular. He had scored the team enough points surpass the Marshall Migrates and send them home. The Mill Valley Tigers (a very broad name for the sports teams for the school) hoisted 

Tommy up onto their shoulders, and shouted his name all the way to the parking lot. 

“TOMMY! TOMMY! TOMMY!”

Tommy grinned and held his bat up high, silently proclaiming it as his own. The very first junior league game that he had won since he started playing for the team, and it was all due to his brand-new bat. It had hit every ball, smashed two home runs, and had potentially earned Tommy a girlfriend. Tommy and Liza locked eyes, and she gave him a flirty smile. Before he could return the favor, the team lowered him into the horde of players once again, and everybody was climbing into the bus. 

On the bus ride home, Tommy and Liza made out. They would have gotten further, but there were witnesses. When the bus returned to Mill Valley, the team agreed to go out for some ice cream to celebrate their victory. Tommy joined them, and he met some of the boys who were in the same grade level as him. Their names were Kyle Davidson, Alfred Calvin, and Jack Grant. The 4 guys hung out with Liza at the ice cream parlor until the bus was ready to take everybody back to the school. Everybody was loaded onto the bus, and they were shipped back off to the school again. 

“Thank you.” Tommy said.

“For what?” She said. She was on his bed, coloring in a picture of a horse leaping over a white picket fence. 

“Giving me the bat.” He said. 

“I didn’t give it to you. I just found it.” She said with a smart smile. 

“Yeah, yeah.” He said, huffing. He was sitting under his bedroom window, remembering the kisses he had shared with Liza on the bus. He held the victory bat in his hand, slightly cuddling with it. “I can’t believe we won. And Liza kissed me. We actually made out.” 

“Gross.” She said, making a face. 

“Not gross.” Tommy corrected. “It was amazing, dude! Maybe I’ll lost my virginity to her.” 

“Your what?” She asked, looking up from her coloring book. 

“My…you know when two people have sex, right?” He asked. 

She shook her head. “What’s that?”

“It’s when you put the dick inside the vagina.” Tommy laughed. 

“EW!” She shouted! “Don’t! Just shut up!” 

Tommy laughed harder. “You asked!” 

She rolled her eyes and went back to drawing the brown horse on her coloring book. “I’m happy you won.” She said. “And that you got a trophy too.” 

“Yeah.” Tommy said, glancing over at the gleaming trophy that remained on his nightstand. It was a golden baseball. “My first trophy…all because of this bad boy right here.” Tommy said, kissing the face of the bat and beaming.

“And me.” She said, tilting her head up. 

“Yeah, yeah.” Tommy teased. “I still can’t believe that someone would leave this in the forest like that. I mean, who does that? This bat works fine. It works great. Hell, I won a game with it!” 

“Language!” She said!

Tommy scoffed. “I sure hope I don’t lose it like they did. Then, I’d have to kill myself.”

She shook her head and concentrated on the horse’s tail, but she started to get a faint idea. Her eyes lit up, and her eyebrows jumped up to her hairline! She brushed her hair back and jumped off of the bed, running to her brother’s desk and rummaging through the pencil box!

“Hey!” Tommy said! “What are you doing, that’s my desk!” 

She ignored him and grabbed a heavy orange marker. “What’s your favorite color?” She asked him. 

“Huh? Uh, Green?” He replied. 

“Cool.” She smiled. She fished a green marker out of the box, and tossed it to Tommy. He caught it, and looked at her with confusion. “What’s going on?” He asked. 

“You said you didn’t wanna lose it, right?” She repeated. 

“Yeeeah?” Tommy said slowly. 

“So, we just have to put our names on it! That way, if somebody ever finds it again, they know who to bring it back to.” She chirped. 

“Or, they’ll keep it and scratch our names off of the bat.” Tommy said. 

“It’s better than nothing. The last kid didn’t put his name on it.” She said with a hand on her hip. Tommy bit his bottom lip, and pushed himself off of the wall. He held his bat in his lap, and examined the face. It was beautiful. Tommy did not want to ruin it. “What if it ruins the wood?”

“It won’t.” She said, taking a seat beside her brother and removing her marker cap. 

“Woah, woah!” Tommy said, grabbing her wrist and stopping her. “What are you doing?”

“Writing my name?” She said.

“Not on my bat, you’re not!” He said. “You may have found it, but I own it, and I say that it’s mine. You can go buy or find your own bat when YOU play baseball.”

“I don’t like baseball.” She said.

“Oh, well.” He said. He took her marker and threw it back into the pencil box, resuming his stature on the wall and his daydream of Liza’s lips. 

Tears welled up in her eyes, and she threw her hands down before jumping up to her feet, and bolting out of the room in sadness. Soon, she had slammed the door to her bedroom at the end of the hallway. 

“Don’t slam the doors, or I’ll shove my foot up your ass!” Mr. Milner called out from downstairs.

Then, all was quiet. 

Tommy knew her sister would get over it soon enough. She always did – it was in her nature. He knew that she wanted to be brave, like him, but it obviously wasn’t meant to be. She would always be a sweet little girl, and he would always be a valiant soldier that would win the hearts of millions. He imagined himself as a pro baseball player, and grinned to himself. He couldn’t imagine playing anything else other than baseball. 

Tommy eventually brushed his teeth, changed into Pajamas, and went to bed. 

Her door crept open in the middle of the night, and she turned in shock to see who was coming in. She rubbed her eyes with her balled fists and looked at the silhouette in the doorway – Tommy Milner. He came into the room, holding his bat in one hand. He turned on a lamp next to her bed, and sat down next to her.

“What do you want?” She said sassily. 

Tommy held out his other hand – in it, a green marker and an orange marker. She stared at them for a few seconds, and broke out into a gleeful grin. 

“I like orange.” She said as she popped her marker cap off, and began to write near the top of the bat:

LM

“It’s alright. I like Green better.” Tommy teased, taking the Green marker and writing next to his sister’s initials:

TM

“There.” Tommy said. “Now we won’t lose the bat.” 

“Our bat.” She corrected.

“…our bat.” Tommy said, bobbing his head. She giggled, and wrapped her small arms around her bigger brother. Tommy hesitated, but he put one arm around her own body and held her close to him. They didn’t say anything else; they stayed in the embrace for a while until they were both ready for bed.


End file.
